Word: astronaut
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...that Donald K. ("Deke") Slayton would never forget. On March 15, 1962, only two months before the taciturn astronaut was scheduled to become the second American to orbit the earth, NASA doctors abruptly grounded him. Reason: they had discovered an occasional irregularity in the rhythm of his heartbeat. The bitterly disappointed Slayton subsequently became chief of flight-crew operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center and played a key role in picking all future space crews, including the first men to land on the moon. But even as he sent other astronauts to the launch pad, he never stopped dreaming...
...impregnable strongholds of masculine prerogative. Four recent victories: 1) Lieut, (j.g.) Judith Ann Neuffer, 24, of Ohio, became the first woman assigned to train as a Navy pilot. "I'm going to give it everything I have," she promised, adding that she would like to be considered for astronaut duty "if the opportunity came along." Responded Secretary of the Navy John W. Warner: "I would so recommend." 2) Next month, Emily Joyce Howell, 33, of Denver will begin work as the nation's first and only woman pilot of a major scheduled airline. With the rank of second...
...credit belongs to Gene Cernan, who had special reason for his all-out photographic effort. During the flight of Gemini 9 in 1966, he took a dramatic "walk" in space as his ship circled the earth. But most of the shots taken of Cernan by his fellow astronaut Tom Stafford were lost when a film pack accidently floated out of the open hatch and disappeared in space. Only one spacewalk picture-showing a partial view of Cernan-was returned to earth. That made Cernan more determined than ever to come home with a superior and complete photographic record of Apollo...
...finally able to squeeze into one frame the lunar rover, Schmitt and the startling orange soil that Schmitt had discovered at Shorty Crater. Geologist Schmitt also proved an adept lensman, but as might be expected, he showed more of an eye for lunar rocks than for his fellow astronaut...
Early in the mission, Astronaut Ron Evans made his most notable photographic contribution; he took a picture that will rank among the classics of the space program. As Apollo sped toward the moon after blasting into its translunar trajectory, he pointed his camera back toward home and caught a stunning view of the earth, with the side visible to the astronauts completely illuminated. In crystal-clear detail it shows almost the entire coastline of Africa and the offshore island republic of Malagasy, the Arabian peninsula and an unusually thick cover of swirling clouds over Antarctica and the surrounding region...