Word: schirra
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...only source of suspense in the Schirra episode is a worry over the winds on the day of lift-off. Surely, if three men are going to sit on a skyscraper-size tube of rocket fuel and then be sent into space for 11 days, there must be more exciting matters to dwell on. In general, the mini-series fails to give the viewer a good sense of the purposes and risks of the missions. That's not surprising, since scientific information is so hard to convey in a drama. The result, though, is that we don't appreciate...
...concerns the investigation into the causes of fire on Apollo 1 that killed three men. The technical sleuthing is mildly interesting, and the two engineers at the center of the tale are sympathetic, yet the episode never crackles. The hour that follows focuses on Wally Schirra, leader of the Apollo 7 mission, who is played by Mark Harmon. In an irritating device, Peter Horton is a documentary filmmaker who questions Schirra and others. The result is an aimless string of interviews; Schirra talks more than he acts, and the story has no drive...
...Edwards Air Force Base, where we first meet some of the men who a decade later will become astronauts: Cooper (Dennis Quaid), Grissom (Fred Ward) and Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin). Along the way NASA adds Glenn (Ed Harris). Alan Sheperd (Scott Glenn). Scott Carpenter (Charles Frank) and Wally Schirra (Larrie Henriksen). But Yeager remains on the California desert to continue his test runs which seem every bit as heroic as his counterparts' trips into space. As portrayed by the playwright Sam Shepard, Yeager stands above the rest. His humility, perseverance and courage imply that even someone not lionized...
...Walter Schirra, 60, lives with his wife of 37 years in an exclusive development southwest of Denver, travels frequently and especially enjoys big-game hunting. The only astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, he does TV commercials and other promotion for Tang, the orange drink that the astronauts slurped in space, and for Actifed cold tablets. Although he sits on the boards of several companies, the affable Schirra says he works only when he wants to: "I'm through punching time clocks...
...know-the right stuff. Now seven relatively unknown actors are portraying the real thing in a movie of Tom Wolfe's 1979 bestseller, The Right Stuff. Striking a version of the LIFE cover, they are, from left to right and top to bottom, Lance Henriksen as Wally Schirra and Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard; Ed Harris as John Glenn, Charles Frank as Scott Carpenter and Scott Paulin as Deke Slayton; Dennis Quaid as Gordon Cooper and Fred Ward as Gus Grissom. Said Quaid: "I get to be a national hero for six months." Hardly up to the public relations...