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Astronaut Thomas Stafford has died
- toomuchtodo 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_P._Stafford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_P._Stafford
- I-M-S 3y agoThat leaves seven Apollo astronauts still alive, the youngest of whom are 88. I'm not sure how likely it is that any of them will see humans walk the Moon again.
- jjice 3y agoI guess I shouldn't be surprised since they were picked partially for health, but seven with the youngest being 88 is a great lifespan for them.
- InitialLastName 3y agoThere were once 24 of them, and by definition they were old enough to be astronauts 52 years ago. [0] suggests that for a 36 year old now the median age of death is 76; I don't see a spread but it shouldn't be surprising to see 1/3 outlast that by 12 years. [0] https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html
- Retric 3y agoThere’s a good chance some or all 7 will see people walk on the moon reasonably soon. Artemus 3 is scheduled for September 2026, that can clearly slip but a 2.5 year deadline suggests it is unlikely to slip that far or get canceled. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_3 IMO 80% chance it happens within 6 years and 95% chance they actually land on the moon successfully. Without a firm date it’s hard to have a specific plan, but it may be worth actually going and seeing that launch.
- ramesh31 3y ago>Artemus 3 is scheduled for September 2026, that can clearly slip but a 2.5 year deadline suggests it is unlikely to slip that far or get canceled. Artemis has failed to meet a single deadline since its inception, and has cost more than all public and private investment into SpaceX for the last 20 years combined. We are paying more for a single (disposable) SLS engine than the cost of an entire Falcon 9 launch. The whole thing is a farce.
- glimshe 3y agoCost overruns are a staple of government-led programs. Also, the government has very deep pockets (and plenty of credit) and should be able to deal with the costs as long as it remains a priority in our image competition with China.
- wolverine876 3y agoCost and schedule overruns are a staple of developing new technology and complex systems. It's very difficult to estimate time and budget for those things.
- nordsieck 3y ago>Cost and schedule overruns are a staple of developing new technology and complex systems. It's very difficult to estimate time and budget for those things. I'd be more sympathetic if SLS had more new technology. They're using actual engines that previously flew on Shuttles. And sure - there's a few changes - the SRBs have 5 segments, there's new insulation, etc. But nothing that should have caused the expense and delay that we're seeing. Heck - the cost overruns and delays with the mobile launch platforms ML-1 and ML-2 are absurd and there's absolutely nothing new there - they're just steel towers with piping.
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- nkoren 3y agoThe requisite XKCD: https://xkcd.com/893/ https://xkcd.com/893/
- londons_explore 3y agoSo if I'm reading that right, we're well above the 95th percentile...
- InitialLastName 3y agoThere are only 4 alive who have walked on the moon, so right about at the 95th percentile.
- samstave 3y agoDo these things just come to him in his dreams? Maybe his Fiance who passed is sending him info beyond the grave... Never fails to impress... However, would you think the term "another world" == the Moon? Isnt the Moon intrinsically a part of this world? Another Globe would be more accurate.
- natebc 3y agoFWIW his fiancee was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, they married a few months later and AFAICT is still on a Lane(1) going forward. 1) https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/931:_Lanes https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/931:_Lanes
- saalweachter 3y agoAt the very least, we have https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2386:_Ten_Years https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2386:_Ten_Years
- cgriswald 3y agoI don’t believe I have seen anyone use “world” to also include the Moon. Do you have an example? Generally moons are not considered part of the same “world” as their planets: “All these worlds are yours except Europa.”
- japhyr 3y agoFor anyone interested in the story of the astronauts who went to the moon, Moondust is a great read. In the early 2000s (if I remember right), the author traveled around the world to visit each of the living men who had set foot on the moon. He asks them about their experiences, both on the moon and in the time since the moon missions ended. Some of them treat him like any interviewer, but toward the end as they realize he has actually connected all of their stories once again, they share a bit more than what comes out in typical interviews. It's a wonderful blending of life in the world at that time, the story of our collective quest to reach the moon, and the individual stories of humans who actually went there. https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth/dp/0062906690/ https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth/dp/006...
- philomath_mn 3y agoGreat recommendation!
- JKCalhoun 3y agoI read that one and it was excellent. The author talks also about the times, the era of the moon landings — and he had an interesting aside in the book that stuck with me about Elvis Presley (of all people): ---- snip ---- Always Elvis-sceptic, I once asked the photographer Alfred Wertheimer, one of the last to be allowed real access to the singer, why the girls in the crowd were crying—whether the tears were part of an act. He told me: “Well, I think it was the fact that we’d been through this rigid Eisenhower era. Everything was cutsie-pie crinoline skirts and ‘How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?’; the girls knew their place and they weren’t women’s libbers yet; everything was very tightly organized. Then along comes a guy like Elvis ... he’d go onstage into a darkened auditorium, where there would be maybe 4,000 people — mostly young ladies, a few boys and then a few police, who were there just to make sure nothing ‘dirty’ was happening. From the very start, Elvis is focused on the girls and they’re in love with his hair and the way he curls his lip. And he talks to them and then he begins to sing and he lets it all hang out. His hair, which was immaculate, starts coming down and the sweat comes down—and do you think he stops to mop his brow or sweep his hair back up? No. He gets down on his knees, then gets back up: he is so revealing, so unconscious of his own body movements that all of a sudden the girls look at each other, after all the years of holding everything in, and they cry. “They’re not putting it on the way you’d see girls doing in later years: they’re not screaming or jumping up and down, just holding each other and crying.” ---- snip ----
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- TMWNN 3y agoStafford had an interesting career. Having flown twice on Gemini then commanding Apollo 10, he would have had first pick for commanding a lunar landing (probably Apollo 16, which his 10 crewmate Young commanded) had he wanted it. But Stafford was very much a test pilot, so it's understandable that he would be more interested in the novelty of Apollo-Soyuz and its androgynous docking mechanism, as opposed to doing something he'd already done 80% of and others had done 100% of. I think he's also the first general officer from the NASA astronaut corps.
- KineticLensman 3y ago> I think he's also the first general officer from the NASA astronaut corps. Apparently he was made a 1* (Brigadier General) to have similar rank with Alexei Leonov, the Soviet commander of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. After that mission he continued to be promoted up through the ranks.
- TMWNN 3y agoStafford's first star might have been a little early because of Apollo-Soyuz, but given that he was the first in his Naval Academy class to receive first, second, and third stars, I am sure he would have made general officer regardless. Making flag rank pulled Stafford away from NASA. Not that he would not have wanted to make flag rank, but becoming a general meant that he had to accept command responsibilities.[1] After Apollo-Soyuz Stafford went from NASA to being in charge of the entire USAF air test program, including his former test pilot school, so very much in his wheelhouse. But that also meant that he would not fly the space shuttle. I think Young made the opposite decision: Retire from the Navy as captain, stay with NASA as civilian astronaut, and fly the shuttle (the first mission, STS-1, and a later one). There was a severe shortage of experienced astronauts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, <https://np.reddit.com/r/nasa/comments/nx4hh4/who_would_have_piloted_early_shuttle_flights_if/ https://np.reddit.com/r/nasa/comments/nx4hh4/who_would_have_...> and NASA would have loved to have Stafford still in the astronaut corps. I bet Stafford in turn envied both Young and Joe Engle; the latter flew the shuttle on the pre-launch ALT tests, then used his X-15 experience to hand fly a hypersonic reentry on STS-2. Really, the ne plus ultra of test piloting. [1] Another example of this is Bob Stewart. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Stewart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Stewart>
- usr1106 3y agoIs this the reason HN has a darker background today? (Well, haven't used this phone for while to read HN but I am pretty sure something looks different.)
- SpaceFarmer 3y agoWhen I was a sophomore in college and working an internship, I met a guy down the street who said he used to work for NASA. I was very interested in what he had done at NASA, and space in general. The next time I ran into him he gave me two photos, autographed to me by Thomas Stafford! One is him standing in front of the Saturn V, and the other is the picture of earth he took while flying around the moon. I was so blown away! They are hanging on my wall right now. Really meant a lot to me. The guy that gave me the photos and now Tom aren't alive anymore, but I'll treasure these photos and pass them to my kids.
- engineer_22 3y agoMay his legacy be long remembered... There are relatively very few Astronauts living among us, and we celebrate them (rightly so, they're the best of the best). But with the closely followed developments in the commercial space sector, how many astronauts will we need in the coming decades? Will there be 10x, or 100x astronauts? Are there estimates?
- kjkjadksj 3y agoI think its still not well described how much commercial activity nasa is planning for on the moon. I think its a little bit abhorrent because now we will have a precedent to exploit newly explored planets or moons for private profits. Hopefully we won’t be able to see the strip mines from earth.
- engineer_22 3y agoThat gives a whole new meaning to NIMBY. I guess if the strip mines are on the dark side, it would be acceptable?
- kjkjadksj 3y agoNot in my solar system I guess! To me it just seems a bit backwards to what these scientific efforts are supposed to be about. Are we trying to understand more about the universe in a publicly available manner, or are we simply trying to create a revenue stream for private stakeholders? I am continually disappointed how policy writers in recent years seem to hold for profit stakeholders at even parity or even a superior consideration than the public stakeholders when it comes time to make plans on natural resources that really shouldn’t be unilaterally exploited by anyone.
- gorkish 3y agoWorrying about the visibility of activity on the Moon from Earth is about the most indolent form of misapplied thinking I can imagine. Absolute useless waste of effort. Get real.
- _xerces_ 3y agoIt seems a lot of astronauts, at least the early ones live long lives. I wonder if it was because the selection process weeded out anyone with any sort of health condition and anyone who was not at peak physical fitness.
- 93po 3y agoIt's people with very good baseline health, a lot of discipline in general to help maintain their health, decent enough privilege to lead easy/comfortable/healthy lives and retirements, and probably really good social lives. All things that help ensure long, healthy lives
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- ricksunny 3y agoFrom the article: 'Stafford’s Air Force duties not only had him run the military’s top flight school and experimental plane testing base, but he was commanding general of Area 51. A biography from his museum said, that while Stafford was in charge of Area 51 and later as the development and acquisition chief at the Pentagon he “wrote the specs and established the program that led to the development of the F-117 Stealth Fighter, and later, the B-2 Stealth Bomber.” ' Ah.
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- digger495 3y agoHis namesake museum is the best attraction in Oklahoma. Get up close and personal with a real Apollo control panel.