posted 05-30-2006 08:31 PM               

I have been thinking of this quite a bit over the last week, which manned flights I would consider the bravest due to risk at the time and here is my ranking, I would be curious to see other opinions.

5. Mercury 7 flight
4. Apollo 7 flight
3. Apollo 8 flight
2. Columbia STS-1 flight
1. Apollo 11 flight

posted 05-30-2006 11:21 PM            

Soyuz 5
Soyuz 11
Soyuz 18-1
Soyuz T-10-1
Gemini 6 launch attempts
Gemini 8
Apollo 13
Challenger's last flight
Columbia's last flight

posted 05-31-2006 10:24 AM               

1. Freedom 7 - the Atlas had a nasty tendency to explode. No flight would ever be considered today in such a risky launch vehicle.
2. STS-1 - The first launch of a manned crew in a vehicle never test flown unmanned before. Launch, orbital flight, re-entry, and landing were all unknowns for this vehicle.
3. Apollo 8 - First manned flight on the Saturn V, first attempt to leave Earth orbit, first trip to lunar orbit, complete reliance on service module engine to for LOI and TEI.
4. Apollo 11 - For landing the LM and reliance on the LM ascent engine for liftoff.
5. Skylab 2 - The first manned US space station flight was also to be the first attempt at repairing a vehicle in space...with a whole new set of mission objectives given to the crew shortly before launch.

posted 05-31-2006 11:17 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Moonpaws:

Evel Knievel over the snake river

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posted 05-31-2006 11:24 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by mjanovec:
My top 5 US flights along with my reasoning:

1. Freedom 7 - the Atlas had a nasty tendency to explode. No flight would ever be considered today in such a risky launch vehicle.

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posted 05-31-2006 01:28 PM               

1. Vostok 1.
2. Voskhod 2.
3. Apollo 8.
4 Skylab 2.
5 STS-1.

Adam

posted 05-31-2006 02:41 PM               

1. Vostok 1.
2. Friendship 7.
3. Apollo 8.
4. STS-1.
5. While not a spaceflight Pete Knight's Mach 6.7 flight in the X-15-A2 was incredibly brave. Anyone who's seen the footage of what happened to the leading edges of the wings and tail area (particularly the ventral) from the heat from the hypersonic airflow will know what I mean.

posted 05-31-2006 03:10 PM               

USA: MR-3/Freedom 7
MA-6/Friendship 7
Apollo 8
Apollo 11
STS-1

Worldwide: Vostok-1/Gagarin
MA-6/Friendship 7
Apollo 8
Apollo 11
STS-1

IMO, don't see how Vostok-1, Apollo 8, Apollo 11 and, especially, STS-1, can be left off any list of riskiest/bravest manned spaceflights.

posted 05-31-2006 08:39 PM            

It was the first time a U.S. crew had ever gone aloft in a vehicle that killed it's last crew in flight. That ride uphill must have been equally exhilarating and terrifying. In those days after Challenger it was widely presumed that once the solids were gone, all would be fine. That had to be a rough two and a half minutes.

I think the mindset is a little different in the years following Columbia. The launch is still a considerable risk, but once you've done it you're already committed to whatever follows.

posted 05-31-2006 10:08 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by John K. Rochester: Freedom 7 was, of course, launched by a Redstone..I'm sure you meant Friendship 7.

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Oops...yes, I meant Friendship 7. Thanks for catching that.

posted 06-01-2006 09:53 AM               

Vostok 1 (you gotta figure that Gagarin thought his survival chances were pretty marginal -first manned launch, the reentry, the use of an ejection seat, parachuting to the ground, etc, etc.)

Freedom 7 ("I'm cooler than you are...". But, there was a reason that the ground team was nervous.)

STS 1 (No one had ever proven that this damn thing could even get off the ground)

Apollo 8 (Would you have completely trusted the SPS to get you out of lunar orbit at this point in the program? Plus, no one had ridden a Saturn V before...)

Gemini 6 (second launch attempt - Stafford HAD to be sweating.)

Now after the launch is a different story...

posted 06-01-2006 01:45 PM               

Post-landing bravery:
== Liberty Bell 7 - nearly drowning as you watch the rescue crews go after your ship instead of you
== Voshkod 2 - missing your landing point by 1200 miles and spending a night in a dense forest surrounded by wolves, and your spacesuit filled past the ankles with your sweat
== Soyuz 23 - spending a day upside down without heat inside your capsule, submerged in a semi-frozen lake
== Come to think of it, just about any Soyuz landing !

posted 06-01-2006 11:45 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by kyra:
The rescue crew found him by following the trail of blood to a nearby farm !

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I agree, Volynov's Soyuz 5 descent definitely needs to be on this list. But the part above you state, while appearing in some normally very reliable source's accounts, has been stated to be false by Volynov himself. There were no buildings anywhere close by (for dozens of miles), he was wearing a lightweight tracksuit and it was well below freezing outside. He stayed in the spacecraft until the official rescue team arrived.

In the same way, Leonov has said that accounts of wolves snarling around the Voskhod 2 spacecraft at night(as many accounts exaggerate) are fanciful. They saw animal tracks in the forest, that was all.