From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!orion!lime!eds
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Re: Curious Anomaly (Jr. astros)
Article-I.D.: lime.312
Posted: Mon Jan  3 10:18:59 1983
Received: Tue Jan  4 02:03:04 1983

About the preponerance of "Jr.'s" in the astronaut ranks...

My high school chemistry teacher was a personal friend of one of the leading
candidates for the first group of astronauts.  This guy's qualifications
were super, but he was rejected.  NASA told him that the only reason was that
he was the middle child in his family.  It seems that at first, NASA only
accepted first-born sons as astronauts!

	Ed Schulz, American Bell, Holmdel, NJ.