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When NASA sent a sitting Member of Congress into space
- redis_mlc 6y agoI remember the controversy involving NASA and passenger gatekeeping (literally) back then. NASA wanted nothing to do with space tourists at any price, hence members of the public like Shuttleworth paying Russia about $20 million per flight for space tourism rides. https://spaceadventures.com/mark-shuttleworth/ https://spaceadventures.com/mark-shuttleworth/ NASA was even in a marathon tiff with the US military, who were co-operators of the Shuttles (the US military had design/change/mission input and their own control rooms, including the "Blue Cube" in Sunnyvale) and had their own crew. The wedge was driven deeper when NASA regarded astronauts and mission specialists as different categories of crew, and the military responded that their "mission specialists" were not a lower priority than NASA's astronauts. So it was bad PR when poiticians got free rides on the Shuttles. Also, even former pilots like Garn got very sick, as "air tolerance" fades in less than a month after active duty. John Glenn also did a Shuttle flight at 77 yo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Glenn