Word: spacing
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...jargon. Once in a while, Mike Collins cracks a joke. Once in a longer while, Neil Armstrong flashes a fleeting smile. After work, they go their separate ways. It may be true, Aldrin admits, that they have all been somewhat dehumanized by what he calls "the treadmill" of the space program...
...many qualify. Of 1,400 applicants for the last batch of astronauts in 1967, only eleven were chosen. There are now only 49 astronauts and, in many ways, all are as precise as the laws of celestial mechanics?and as unforgiving as the machines that hurtle them through space. Says Slayton of his astronauts: "They don't have any technical weaknesses. If they did, we wouldn't have them aboard...
Armstrong went to work for NASA as a civilian test pilot for the X-15 rocket plane, which he flew at 3,989 m.p.h. and an altitude of 207,500 ft.?both records at the time. In the early days of the space program, Armstrong had no desire to become an astronaut. Says a close acquaintance: "He thought those guys were playing around with a lot of marbles." After the "marbles" began lifting other pilots into space, he changed his mind and in 1962 became one of the second group of astronauts to be chosen. As a civilian...
...Aldrin went on to West Point, where he finished third in a class of 475. After combat duty in Korea, he was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Academy as aide to the dean of the faculty, then flew fighters in West Germany. He began thinking about joining the space program, but decided that he needed more education. After getting his doctorate from M.I.T. in 1963?46 years after his father had received his bachelor's degree there?Aldrin was selected for the third group of astronauts. He is married to the former Joan Archer...
...goes out of his way to slop around in jeans and act as unmilitary as possible. He enjoys cooking gourmet dinners and knows his way around French wines. To Collins, everybody is "Babe," and he likes to poke fun at the bloated titles that the simplest pieces of space hardware carry. "What we need in the space program is more English majors," he says...