Word: astronaut
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...outdo one another. Never in its history had the New York Times used such large headline type. New Delhi's Statesman and the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser put large footsteps on their front pages. São Paulo's O Estado de São Paulo ran Astronaut Neil Armstrong's first words after stepping on the moon in nine languages. Rome's II Messaggero covered three-quarters of its front page with three words: "Luna-Primo Passo...
...commercial extolling "Helms-the bread on the moon." A New York supermarket chain ran a picture of the moon-"238,000 miles from Waldbaum's"-and beneath it advertised extra-large cantaloupes at three for 89?. A Long Island harness-racing track accompanied a picture of an astronaut stepping off the base of an LM mockup with the advice: "Hey, finish it later-Roosevelt Raceway opens tomorrow night." TWA and Pan Am eagerly accepted a spurt of new applications for the first commercial flights to the moon; one recent booking was made by California's Governor Ronald Reagan...
...second row are the flight surgeon (whose shorthand designation is "Surgeon," never "Doc"), and the spacecraft communicator, or "Capcom." White dots sliding across the surgeon's console screen indicate heart and respiration rate's of the astronauts. Capcom, always an astronaut himself, handles all communication with the crew, giving the men who are deep in space a direct link with one of their own. Only in emergencies does anyone else take the microphone. There were none with Apollo...
...week, NASA Administrator Thomas Paine had publicly voiced the hope "that the juxtaposition of two lunar missions in such a close time frame points out the desirability of close cooperation in space between the Soviet Union and the United States." During his recent tour of Russia, Apollo 8 Astronaut Frank Borman called for wider exchanges of scientific information and the joint tracking of satellites. He advocated a halt to "unnecessary duplication" in planetary exploration and suggested that when orbiting laboratories are lofted into space, they be manned with scientists from a number of different countries. A Soviet space scientist, Anatoly...
Sometimes it seems as if the astronauts have been chosen by some secret P.R. quotient to project a wholesome, understated image. Bravery yes, but no heroics; little eccentricities yes, but no flamboyance. Their press conferences are small Seas of Tranquillity. But, as with all other professional risk takers, the very absence of excitement suggests the presence of courage. In most valorous men there must be a diminution of the imaginative faculty. "Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily," wrote La Rochefoucauld. The talk of "fuel margins" and EVAs is, in part, a way of giving the eyes...