Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site ucbcad.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!ucbcad!ucbesvax.turner From: ucbesvax.turner@ucbcad.UUCP Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Test pilot astronauts - (nf) Message-ID: <118@ucbcad.UUCP> Date: Tue, 21-Jun-83 07:05:49 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbcad.118 Posted: Tue Jun 21 07:05:49 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 27-Jun-83 02:31:39 EDT Sender: notes@ucbcad.UUCP Organization: UC Berkeley, CAD Group Lines: 35 #R:gummo:-81700:ucbesvax:8700002:000:1530 ucbesvax!turner Jun 21 01:56:00 1983 On the question of how many astronauts have been test-pilots, at on time or another, I can only say that it's probably a slimmer majority now than before the shuttle. I was surprised to see how many shuttlenauts are Navy officers. Or I *was* surprised, until I remembered that the early days of the space program were enlivened by a competition between the Air Force and the Navy. NASA was, I think, created to resolve this tension. When you think of how the Russians have been doing soft ground- landings almost from the start, and how "splash-down" was SOP for the U.S. until the shuttle, one wonders whether the Navy didn't have some- thing to do with the American Way of Re-entry. Pomp and Circumstance for an event of indefinite location is a little easier to arrange on a movable surface like an aircraft carrier. Those Siberian Plump-Downs must be rather dismal affairs by comparison. Another interesting thing (to me): as far as I know, there has not yet been a non-U.S. citizen put into orbit by NASA (though I've heard that a Puerto Rican is cheduled). By contrast, the USSR has launched astronauts from most Eastern Bloc countries, as well as one Mongolian and one Frenchman. (-: I can't wait for the first Palestinian. Maybe Arafat will start talking about a homeland in one of the Earth-Luna libration points, assuming Israel doesn't get there first. :-) Michael Turner ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner P.S. If a computer can make Time's "Man of the Year" cover, surely Dr. Ride will have no trouble.