First Flight:
Breaking In New Spacecraft
[ continued ]
The Gemini 3 flight was a
success. Perhaps the most memorable part of the flight
was lunch. Putting aside the dried, vacuum-packed
Gemini food, John Young offered Grissom a fresh deli
sandwich. NASA wasn't too happy with the prank--the
crumbs could have caused problems with delicate
machinery--but it DID mark perhaps the first edible
meal consumed in orbit.
The next debut of an American manned-spacecraft was the tragic Apollo 1. Grissom was again selected to initiate a new capsule. But he and his crew (Ed White and Roger Chaffee) lost their lives in a tragic fire within the command module...right on the launch pad. The first manned Apollo spacecraft would go, then, to the backup crew of Wally Schirra, Donne Eisles and Walt Cunningham. This crew flew a mission (Apollo 7) that was dubbed a "101 percent success" -- because it accomplished more than was specified in the original flight plan. On the negative side, the crew suffered head colds throughout the flight, a condition that is considerably more unpleasant in space than on the earth. Without gravity, sinuses do not drain...
For the first flight of the shuttle, NASA selected John Young as commander, the same astronaut who flew with Grissom on Gemini 3. Young (and his crew mate Robert Crippen) piloted the first-ever manned landing onto an actual landing strip.
Now, we await the new Orion-Ares. Who will fly it? What will happen? How will the new hardware perform?