Word: schirra
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...realism of The Right Stuff thumps the heart of a traditionalist. The organizing principle of the book is an old-fashioned fascination with, and admiration for, the test pilots and fighter jocks of the U.S.'s first astronaut team: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton. In addition, the book has a superhero, Chuck Yeager, a World War II combat veteran who broke the sound barrier in 1947 and rewrote aviation history in experimental rocket-powered planes of the '50s and early...
Carrying the Fire displays less tolerance for some of the others, notably the Apollo 7 crew: "Wally [Schirra] was late every morning, never apologized, and never tried to catch up with the schedule but wasted instead another 45 minutes on guffaws, coffee and war stories . . . [Walt] Cunningham bitched constantly, at Wally and the world, and [Donn] Eisele served as a good-natured referee who didn't quite understand what was going on half the time...
...seeks to boost the self-esteem of long-suffering southpaws [Jan. 7], will find comfort in an astonishing fact that I noted while working on a book about the Apollo moon-landing program. Of the 29 astronauts who flew the Apollo missions, no fewer than seven are lefthanded: Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, James Lovell, Michael Collins, Richard Gordon. Edgar Mitchell and Charles Duke...
...countless public appearances required of him. Soon he was on his way to what he now calls "a good old-fashioned American nervous breakdown." In contrast, other astronauts seem to have taken full advantage of the acclaim: John Glenn made a run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, Wally Schirra appeared as a commentator and in commercials on television, Frank Borman took over a vice presidency at Eastern Airlines, and Al Shepard has made lucrative connections within Houston's business community. In fact, once the glow of fame wears off, some astronauts have found it painful to slip back...
...seat, and is now part owner of several Ohio motels. Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter is head of an oceanographic company, while Apollo 8's Frank Borman is a vice president of Eastern Airlines. Mercury and Gemini Astronaut Gordon Cooper has set himself up as a management consultant. Wally Schirra, of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, when not acting as Walter Cronkite's sidekick during CBS's coverage of moon shots, runs an environmental research firm. Restless as NASA's deputy associate administrator for aeronautics, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, quit last October and became...