Apollo - Heroes or Villains?

It was indeed. It's one of a stack of spaceflight books I bought recently, so I haven't really had the chance to sit down and read it yet......... much to my shame

Brian

Long time reader, first time poster.

You guys may, and probably do know a helluva lot more about this than I do, but I think you are being overly harsh on Schirra. While I agree the guy comes off as a total asshole, but his actions on Apollo 7, were in my humble opinion, the right thing to do.

At the time of the mutiny, Schirra was feeling the severe effects of his cold. Its bad enough having a cold on your own on Earth. Imagine having it while locked in a tube with two other guys, who if not already sick, will soon be and are possibly already showing symptoms, and on top of that, the stress of being in command of the mission. The tv thing was a publicity stunt, and if I were in Schirra's position I'd have refused to flip the switch too. Again imho, stunts like that should only be played when the mission is going perfectly, or, at least when one third of your crew isn't worrying about his eardrums exploding on reentry. Now no matter how much of an ass Schirra is, it has never appeared to me that he would put the lives of his crew in danger needlessly. Returning sans helmets was a bit off alright, but look at it this way - they had a system that worked. When they blew their noses, it depressurised their ears and no bursting. There was no way to know if MC's suggestion would work during re-entry, and with helmets on, there was SFA they could do if it didn't. I think Schirra, as flight commander, made a judgement call, and it payed off.

What a fascinating board! Thanks folks - I haven't got into the space travel bit yet but looks like a good book wouldn't go amiss on the Xmas list.

Do you have any recommendations for a good all-round intro?

I read in one of the astrom mags that Buzz Aldrin 'limped' when he walked on the moon because of a busted 'waste' pipe in his suit, leading to the pooling of 'liquid material' inside one of his boots - is that true?

Dave