posted 07-16-2022 10:17 PM               

...a sordid Tijuana sexual escapade that could have cratered the [Mercury 7] astronauts' wholesome image stayed secret — the result of connivance between a newspaper and future space hero John Glenn, who in 1962 became the first American to orbit the earth. Six decades later, both the paper and journalists involved remain unidentified, and an accounting of the newspaper's role has never surfaced, even as other major pieces of the story have slowly emerged through histories, biographies, and memoirs of the space program's first years. ...

Over the 63-year span since the week at Kona Kai, Glenn's two recountings remain the sole source for information about the newspaper incident in every book that repeats the story. In 23 oral histories conducted with him between 1996 and 2009 at Ohio State University, the interviewers never asked about the Kona Kai week. Glenn died in 2016, having never publicly disclosed the identity of the journalists or the newspaper, other than to say it was a "leading West Coast" daily. If he privately gave those details to the five other astronauts at the Kona Kai, none ever repeated it for the record.

posted 07-29-2022 08:18 PM            

On September 19, 1959, six of America's first spacemen settled in at the Kona Kai Club...

posted 07-29-2022 10:30 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Gordon Eliot Reade:
Rather than being cowed by a famous man I think he should've printed the account and the photos and let the chips fall where they may. If it killed the program so be it. We would've known who to blame.

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posted 07-30-2022 10:40 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Grounded!:
John Glenn knew what he was doing.

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posted 07-30-2022 01:28 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Free speech is not one-sided. Glenn had the same right to voice his concern as the journalist had to write his article.

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posted 07-30-2022 08:33 PM               

Of course, there's no way of knowing what would have happened if the story had gone public. But I wish it had. I know I'd prefer a space program without Alan Shepard. He abused the program more than any other astronaut. I'm sure most of the astronauts had big egos, but his was on another level. And he used his temporary medical grounding to get obscenely rich, and then waltzed back into the program and placed himself first in line for a lunar landing. He personally robbed more deserving astronauts of their chance to walk on the moon. No other astronaut would have been allowed to command a lunar landing without even having been to orbit.

posted 08-01-2022 02:40 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by carmelo:
The worst wrong you can do to history is to demand that the men of the past must have the mentality of today.

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posted 08-01-2022 07:44 PM               

But I don't think that applies to Shepard. If anything, it's the other way around. In the Mercury era, marriage vows meant a lot more than they do today. Cheating on a spouse was more of a shocking scandal than it is now, and divorce was still a major taboo. So if we judge Shepard by today's standards, it's actually less of a scandal than it would have been back then.

And the distasteful things about Shepard aren't affected by the changing standards of society. He was widely disliked by many of his peers in his own time. He was known for being hostile to the Gemini/Apollo astronauts. He refused to serve on backup crews and he didn't train as hard as the others, but he still wanted to be seen as the top astronaut. And when he returned to flight status and placed himself at the front of the line for a lunar landing, most of his peers were outraged. He was admired for his abilities, but also disliked for his personality.

posted 08-01-2022 10:08 PM               

And I don't want to focus all of that negativity on Shepard specifically. He was certainly not the only astronaut to cheat on his wife, use his status to get rich, or do whatever it takes to defeat his fellow astronauts for a ticket to the moon. So it's unfair to completely single him out.

A lot of my distaste for him comes from a personal bias. I've always been a shy and reserved person. And so I naturally dislike being around extroverted or arrogant people.

A few years ago, I went to SpaceFest for the first time. The first astronaut I met was Al Worden. I shook his hand and told him that it was an honor to meet him. He was very friendly, but I could sense his discomfort at how formal I was. Al was a vibrant life-of-the-party type of man, and I'm a timid bookish geek. I was thrilled to meet him, but it was a short conversation and I left feeling a bit embarrassed.

Later, I met Michael Collins, who's a much closer match to my personality type. And I got along with him so well. We talked about Gemini 10, and his artwork, and the Smithsonian, and it was so enjoyable.

But I know there are people here who had exactly the opposite experience. They had a polite little meeting with Collins, but their favorite stories are about spending time with Worden, or Schirra, or Conrad.

posted 08-02-2022 11:02 AM               

If Shepard (or another guy) not leave his wife, or not cause scandal showing up in public with another woman as was his partner they were just pranks, mischief, nothing of serious.

Now, if this is the way of feeling of your time, you put in danger the interests of your country for a mischief? What are you, a communist? A damn radical? At best you are not a patriot, a good American.