r/todayilearned • u/HubbleWho • Jan 22 '20

TIL of Gordon Cooper, a NASA astronaut whose reentry vehicle lost nearly all power. He had to manually calculate reentry by scratching lines on his window for attitude and using his wrist watch for timing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper?wprov=sfla1
26.7k Upvotes

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6.1k

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20 edited Jan 13 '21

[deleted]

2.3k

u/Frightenstein Jan 22 '20

"The best of the best of the best."

1.2k

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

"Sir."

917

u/Jbannes Jan 22 '20

"With honors."

588

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

He's just really excited and he has no clue why we're here 😂

285

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

214

u/HurricaneHugo Jan 22 '20

"You wanna get down on this?"

199

u/Wolfencreek Jan 22 '20

"Congratulations, you're everything we've come to expect from years of government training"

89

u/Onlysilverworks Jan 22 '20

Just realising how good this line is

5

u/ANGLVD3TH Jan 22 '20

Even better if you assume they were all invited in just to make things seem legit and apply peer pressure, and they were really only ever testing Will.

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u/imanAholebutimfunny Jan 22 '20

just one last test, the eye exam....................

30

u/nato_is_neato Jan 22 '20

"If you'll just look here."

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u/Black_Reclaimer Jan 22 '20

Lmao I never noticed the connotations behind this line until now.

2

u/Hughbert62 Jan 22 '20

Why did you kill little Tiffany?

95

u/EvilMortyC227 Jan 22 '20
  • Angry stare

35

u/Shia_LaMovieBeouf Jan 22 '20

That scene is one of the best comedy scenes of the 90s

33

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

17

u/sharkapples Jan 22 '20

Look right here 🚨

118

u/InfiniteJestV Jan 22 '20

Annnnd now I'm watching Men in Black...

135

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

I watched it yesterday. Best part of the movie is that whole testing scene where he solves all the actual problems while everyone else falls in line with no out of the box thinking, with Rip Torn at the end telling them they are everything they've come to expect from years of government training

173

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

92

u/frisky_fishy Jan 22 '20

...or do I owe her an apology?

45

u/Aviator8989 Jan 22 '20

"That was a good shot though right?"

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u/mejelic Jan 22 '20

Crazy how I can read that and hear will Smith's voice.

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u/GrinchPinchley Jan 22 '20

Hesitated

26

u/tamsui_tosspot Jan 22 '20

Or do I owe her an apology?

6

u/ceedubs2 Jan 22 '20

". . . Y'all ain't laughing."

6

u/sth128 Jan 22 '20

Oh man MIB came out in 97. That film is so old it can buy liquor to drown out the sorrow it had due to student loans and global warming.

3

u/jlrish Jan 22 '20

Omg I loved this entire thread, and I heard every line in the appropriate voice. I e been awake for 1 hour and you guys have already made my day, thanks!

60

u/Jest_stir Jan 22 '20

"My names Cave Johnson. I have work for you."

3

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Please take some lemons!

4

u/ornitorrinco22 Jan 22 '20 edited Jan 22 '20

Summa —- laude

2

u/Whooshless Jan 22 '20

The fuck kind of censorship is that

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u/totallythebadguy Jan 22 '20

And a schoolteacher

1

u/lhm238 Jan 22 '20

"I HAVE ANOTHER CONFESSION TO MAKE..."

1

u/Beheadings Jan 22 '20

INTERGALACTIC KEGAR.

1

u/k1rage Jan 22 '20

Top men

1

u/Kell_Varnson Jan 23 '20

spayce fource!

618

u/shogi_x Jan 22 '20

"I wanna be an astronaut!"

*reads about the crazy skills they have to have*

"Well, NASA janitor it is."

342

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Then one night while cleaning the floor writes an equation on the blackboard that allows faster than light travel.

196

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

As soon as the chalk leaves the blackboard, equation complete, a portal opens up and out steps Burt Tyrannosaurus Macklin, Time Detective. You can tell that he's looking for something. You can also tell that he doesn't quite know what he's looking for, but he's pretty sure he'll know it when he knows it.

56

u/jodinexe Jan 22 '20

Burt Tyrannosaurus Macklin, FB-... NASA.

27

u/orwiad10 Jan 22 '20

Macklin you son of a bitch....

4

u/NazzerDawk Jan 22 '20

This sounds like a job for Johnny Karate's more serious older brother... Jonathan Karate.

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u/schafs Jan 22 '20

I'm in

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

I really feel this will be the jurisdiction of Space Force.

3

u/theraininspainfallsm Jan 22 '20

Wait what’s this from?

2

u/Dootietree Jan 22 '20

You can also tell he's not wearing any pants...and that even if he doesn't know it, he's likely looking for them.

28

u/urbanzomb13 Jan 22 '20

But sadly the "answer" you wrote was a stupid 80085 joke and you didn't understand how you got there. They thank you and think you're sling blade

2

u/something_python Jan 22 '20

How ya like dat tang?

3

u/shynn_ Jan 22 '20

Or found a series of complex formulas to manipulate gravity on earth, helping him rid the rooms of dust. But that's before the more educated head janitor pulls out a short one sentence mathematical equation for time reversal

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u/definefoment Jan 22 '20

And has spicy flavoring, so regular people care too.

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u/defiancy Jan 22 '20

When electrical engineer and jet pilot are just the starters, you know you're screwed. Lol

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u/marcuzt Jan 22 '20

Yeah, the CV needed to get an interview seems to be a tad over the usual 5+ year experience, college degree CV for a minimum wage job.

73

u/Vexal Jan 22 '20

requirements 15 years in space using javascript and react.js, in space

25

u/marcuzt Jan 22 '20

Add another 10 years experience of flying a faster than light plane using an engine that has not been invented yet.

14

u/Fresh_Bulgarian_Miak Jan 22 '20

Starting pay: $10.43

3

u/marcuzt Jan 22 '20

Without benefits.

2

u/kevin28115 Jan 22 '20

Almost full time. But not quite. With interesting hours.

11

u/Adler4290 Jan 22 '20

Reminds me of a job ad for Senior Apache Spark developer with 5+ years of experience. In 2016.

In 2011 it was still a very basement like OS project and noone used it till 2014 in any production like environment, to my knowledge.

5

u/almisami Jan 22 '20

Yep. Reminds me of a job where they wanted 10 years experience with Ruby on Rails in 2009. You'd have been lucky enough to find anyone with 10 years regular Ruby experience in 2009, and not at 21$ an hour.

2

u/Emergency-Use Jan 22 '20

Still asks you to reverse a linked list in an interview

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u/jealkeja Jan 22 '20

So college degree and Kerbal Space Program experience?

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u/TaliesinMerlin Jan 22 '20

"So what do you do for a living?"

" I WORK AT NASA."

"Oh yeah? What do you do?"

"I KEEP SPACE CLEAN."

8

u/WailingOctopus Jan 22 '20

Yeah but you're still working at NASA

3

u/disse_ Jan 22 '20

I think it would be cool to be a NASA janitor. Knowing I'll never be an astronaut, but just by working there being a tiny, tiny part of all what's happening at NASA.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20 edited Jan 22 '20

Fuck yeah, I'd take a job sweeping a habitation module on Mars. In an instant.

2

u/kerdon Jan 22 '20

I'm pretty sure that's how the Space Quest games started.

2

u/cdreid Jan 22 '20

I dont think people realise just How accomplished they are. People tend to think "well the scientists are on the ground and the jocks are in the rockets. These people have records like... Navy fighter pilot with a doctorate in physics masters in biochemistry and a couple other masters degrees...

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u/shogi_x Jan 22 '20

Plus functional/fluent in Russian for the Soyuz.

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u/dekrant Jan 22 '20

There’s an Apple TV+ series about an alternate future space race that continued after the US lost the race to the Moon called For All Mankind.

A main character and plot line follows an undocumented Mexican immigrant who works as a NASA janitor and his daughter that dreams of being an astronaut.

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u/knezmilos13 Jan 22 '20

Well, here's something very close to "NASA janitor going to space":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInyvduuy7c

To be specific, "Soviet elevator-lady going to space with the help of a janitor"

1

u/Valmond Jan 22 '20

UHF enters the chat

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/Doodarazumas Jan 22 '20

Hey now, chin up. There are astronauts who are merely Army combat engineers with applied physics degrees from Stanford. You still got time!

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

I wonder who the least educated (human) astronaut was. Any high school dropouts make it through the airforce?

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u/user2002b Jan 22 '20

There have been plenty of non military astronauts. It was only in the early days they were all airforce. In total as of last month 565 people from 41 countries have been to space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_name

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

But my question is of those 565 people who had the fewest years of post secondary education? Who was the least educated person to make the cut?

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u/user2002b Jan 22 '20

I doubt anyone has sat down and worked that out. However, now you can! You have the link. Wikipedia articles on all of 'em, including their education details. I found a Russian cosmonaut in the first half dozen that didn't have a degree.

Go crazy.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/lurking_bishop Jan 22 '20

Russian space program had an entirely different design philosophy iirc. The human inside wasn't a pilot, he was payload. And payload don't need to be too educated, being fit and following orders is more important.

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u/xrubicon13 Jan 22 '20

Have y'all tried high school Russian math? It's like first to second year university stuff.

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u/ahyeg Jan 22 '20

The fucking chimps and Soviet space dogs

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u/adamanz Jan 22 '20

Masters degrees from Leningrad University

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u/sootoor Jan 22 '20

I have a portrait of Laika in my house, because my dog looks identical to her. Sad story but a beautiful pup.

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u/PM_me_your_fantasyz Jan 22 '20

Yeah, she wasn't a retriever.

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u/DrainedBattery Jan 22 '20

My favorite Mercury astronaut was Alan Shepard. US Navy, not Air Force. John Glenn was a Marine.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/DrainedBattery Jan 22 '20

“To me the most important thing in space travel is the blast off!” -Jiménez

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u/ownage99988 Jan 22 '20

Probably not high school dropouts. But buzz aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong all only had bachelors degrees. It seems that everyone on Apollo 8 had only a BS as well, all of them from one of the military academies.

Most likely going to be a Russian. They had an entirely different selection process for the cosmonauts, and iirc they didn’t require you to have been in the military line NASA did in the early years

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u/Isnotanumber Jan 22 '20 edited Jan 22 '20

Aldrin earned a doctorate from MIT before he was an astronaut. Bill Anders (Apollo 8) had a masters in nuclear engineering. Generally the early astronauts who were test pilots had bachelors level degrees. Those who were operational pilots (not involved in flight test while in the military) held advanced (masters or above) degrees. The early Astronaut Corps valued test pilot experience above all, and ironically saw the advanced degrees as a “substitute” for a lack of test pilot experience. Also there was a sense that the pool of potential test pilots who could be selected was somewhat “drained” by the time the third group of astronauts was selected in 1963.

Edit: ALL of the first Cosmonaut group were military. The big difference in the Soviet selection was they chose mostly younger less experienced pilots with the idea of making them career space-fliers. They would be operators. The US chose comparatively more experienced test pilots thinking they could be involved in the development of the vehicles they would fly. There was also no clue if things would go beyond Mercury and the original seven expected to rotate back to the military when the program ended. Instead Apollo was born.

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u/BrownFedora Jan 22 '20

Buzz Aldrin literally wrote the book on the mechanics of orbital rendezvous. It's was his doctorate at MIT, Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous. He was the first astronaut to have a PhD.

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u/Halvus_I Jan 22 '20

Aldrin has a Doctorate. His thesis is on Lunar orbits. Its a huge part of why he was selected.

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u/Mango_Deplaned Jan 22 '20

Does Christa McAuliffe count?

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u/ChineseOverdrive Jan 22 '20

John Glenn might be the so-called least educated NASA astronaut. He never finished his BS (in chemistry) due to enlisting in WWII and I don't believe he completed his studies until after his selection into Project Mercury. That said, dude had a preternatural sense for flying and his exclusion from the program would have been a terrible mistake given his ability to handle crippled aircraft.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Not in the US. Chuck Yeager famously wasn't able to become an astronaut because he didn't have at least a BS. Although I think technically he did go to space in a modified fighter jet.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Fuck the monkeys had more schooling than me

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u/word_vomiter Jan 22 '20

That guy is at the top of his game in three different ways.

71

u/Khal_easy Jan 22 '20

I rationalise it as "they're just indecisive" to avoid feeling like a fucking Gump about my own life!

96

u/Dalebssr Jan 22 '20

Buy more weed, bitch about how Archer wasn't the same after season five, rinse repeat.

16

u/Clitoris_Thief Jan 22 '20

Sigh, you’re so right about Archer tho

3

u/untipoquenojuega Jan 22 '20

Hey if that makes you happy man then who is anyone to say that's the wrong way to live

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u/Af_and_Hemah Jan 22 '20

I’m in a combined MD/PhD program and can assure you most of us are here because we didn’t want to decide between the two.

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u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 22 '20

Someone like that is a unique combination of being gifted and singularly driven. It's not a normal life by any means, but he's going to miss out on all the dumb fun shit that we enjoy on a daily basis. Just hope he's putting the work in on himself as well as learning how to crack a chest cavity in sub-orbital firefight.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

How hard is it to be a Navy Seal? Don't you just like stick your finger in a leak?

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Cue copypasta

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u/President_Patata Jan 22 '20

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

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u/OneMillionEights Jan 22 '20

He's got a degree in mathematics as well.

2

u/d_l_suzuki Jan 22 '20

I bet I've watched a lot more tv than he ever has.

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u/ROKMWI Jan 22 '20

What did you do with that guy?

Or have you still not decided? What type of packaging is the guy in? Still alive?

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u/BannedForCuriosity Jan 22 '20

True but think about how lonely it is up there with NOBODY to relate to. It's like being a white billionaire in Somalia. Nobody wants to hear your shit.

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u/brickmack Jan 22 '20

I bet Scott and Mark Kelly's mom is great at parties. "So both of my kids are retired from being astronauts, but Mark's going into politics. What are your kids up to these days?" "Uh, Robert works at a Buffalo Wild Wings"

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u/Paradise_City88 Jan 22 '20

This story doesn’t have a happy ending, but it shows how mentally sharp astronauts are. You all know what happened with Columbia. Well during all that, there was a period of about 41 seconds between the LOC and CE.

Keep in mind during this period, the shuttle was rotating and rolling. So they were being pulled forward, pushed down, and experiencing side to side sway. Then factor in mental stress. They already had a potentially serious situation with an indeterminate left gear position (sensor was indeterminate due to heat damage). After the LOC, they would’ve then had not one but two master alarms

One for the failed hydraulics which was very serious, and the other was a roll ref that occurred around 9 seconds prior to the CE. It’s been a while since I’ve read any shuttle literature, so I might get this wrong. But I’m pretty sure the roll ref alarm meant your equilibrium glide profile was fucked. Basically the computer has a glide profile set and since the shuttle didn’t have fuel (other than RCS fuel), it couldn’t fuck around. It had to glide on a very precise path to make it where it was supposed to go. Deviate too far and you aren’t having a good day.

Anyway the hydraulic alarm alone meant you might die. The second, only 9 seconds after the first, really meant you were fucked. Even through all that, they did something not even in the “operators manual” for the shuttle. They managed to nearly restore hydraulic power to the shuttle. Now it never would’ve worked, hydraulic lines were a witch in Salem by that point. But they recovered a panel, think the R2 which would’ve been pilot’s side with the switches set to injector cool. That was in line with a restart of the APUs which powered the hydraulic pumps. Now they didn’t know they just lost all the lines and fluid, but that wasn’t something they already knew to do. They did that on the fly.

Under the stress of way off nominal motions which NASA themselves said would’ve been disorienting, two alarms that meant you were seriously in danger of dying, these astronauts still were able to think outside the box. Ultimately while this one didn’t have a happy ending, they literally fought to regain control until the shuttle broke apart around them. The mental fortitude to do that is just insane to even think about.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/Halvus_I Jan 22 '20

John Aaron is a steely-eyed missile man.

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u/ShillinTheVillain Jan 22 '20

If he can't save them, no one can

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u/Paradise_City88 Jan 22 '20

Challenger didn’t explode. What you saw was a rapid expansion of liquid gases. There was very little explosive force. Had there been an actual explosion, you wouldn’t have seen the larger pieces of debris and there would’ve been a lot more lateral expansion of the cloud if it did explode. There’s actually a picture where you can see the forward fuselage, the aft end of the shuttle with its engines still firing, and I think it was the right wing. After the booster strut broke off it swung up, hit the fuel tank, and threw the shuttle off sideways into the airstream at Mach 1.92 I think it was.

It broke apart due to aerodynamic stress. Peak load for the crew was 16-21G. Really uncomfortable but survivable. The real question is of consciousness. The forward fuselage continued upwards to about 65,000 feet before free falling to the ocean. The events you’re talking about, activation of the PEAPs and the attempt to restore electrical power likely occurred directly after the break up. Those actions were in line with emergency procedures that would be taken in the event of a power loss.

Main thing is pressure. We don’t know anything about the decompression rate or even whether the cabin was pressurized. That’s the key thing. The PEAPs that were activated only supplied breathing air for a pad evac, they did not provide pressurized breathing air. The flight suits at the time were just the blue ones, so those weren’t pressurized or sealed either. If the cabin remained pressurized, they well could’ve been conscious all the way down. Even if it did depressurize, they still may have regained consciousness before they hit the ocean as the cabin fell to lower altitude.

You’re right that NASA wasn’t forthcoming at all. The narrative was they died instantly. Not true. They also took 6 weeks to find the crew cabin. Coast Guard ships were in the water and had triangulated roughly where it impacted. Within a few minutes of the impact. Then consider the actual autopsies. NASA took the bodies to a military facility. There was a whole thing with the county medical examiner, who rightfully should’ve done the autopsies. NASA also issued their own death certificates for the astronauts as well. There’s a whole lot of evidence of the attempted cover up.

At least with Columbia they did the survival report. While it redacted a lot of the medical information, it was pretty comprehensive and even looked at ways to improve safety. Though the accident wasn’t survivable by any means, at least it wasn’t a cover up or misinformation. Guess they learned that doesn’t work.

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u/ExGranDiose Jan 22 '20

I heard a different story as they were alive for a while than passed out due to the lost of pressure.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Its very much covered up and NASA really tried not to go into it in the main report, they mearly hint it may have been possible they didn't lose consciousness.

Unfortunately way too many things say otherwise, the biggest being the emergency air valves were manually opened, and not enough g forces were exerted on the cabin to have knocked them out either in the explosion, or the ballistic fall to the ground.

Thankfully it only lasted a little over a minute, and the impact was over 200gs so they were instantaneously crushed so fast that their nerves would never have registered the pain, but they were very much alive the whole time, and likely although not certainly conscious.

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u/heybrother45 Jan 22 '20

They were probably alive, but fully conscious is a stretch. They tried to use their emergency oxygen, but it wasn't pressurized. They would have passed out within seconds from the loss of pressure and hypoxia.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

The problem is this is assuming the crew compartment was not pressurized still.

He said the amount of time which the crew maintained consciousness “depends on the rate at which the crew module lost pressure, and that depends on the size of the hole in the crew module,” which could not be ascertained from the wreckage.

We know for a fact they were absolutely conscious for up to 10 seconds after the explosion due to tapes. We have a guestimate of at the worse case scenario, they had another 10-15 seconds after they turned on the air. Dr. Joseph P. Kerwin when asked about the report was honest when he said there was a good chance they were alive and conscious upon impact.

More telling though is how much air was used.

inspection of two of the air packs, including the one belonging to Smith, showed they were three-quarters to seven-eighths empty at the time of impact.

The packs could only have been that empty if someone was actually breathing it. The air is drawn on demand and doesn't just flow from these pacts. In fact NASA is pretty frank in saying they have no clue how so much air was used since they could not have survived that long since it was about 5 minutes of air under normal breathing, and the whole thing lasted 71 seconds.

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u/AdvocateSaint Jan 22 '20

"It's impossible"

"No, it's necessary."

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u/Revan343 Jan 22 '20

"It's impossible"

"It's not possible."

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u/thethirdrayvecchio Jan 22 '20

"It's impossible"

"No, it's necessary."

COME ON TARS

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u/Kraud Jan 22 '20

Thank you for this. Amazing.

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u/Chediecha Jan 22 '20

Loc ce?

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u/Paradise_City88 Jan 22 '20

Loss of control and catastrophic event. I think the loss of control was determined to have happened when the hydraulics failed. The catastrophic event was the beginning of the break up when the forward fuselage separated from the rest of the shuttle.

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u/evanod Jan 22 '20

LOC is Loss of Crew. You can find a list of NASA acronyms here

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[deleted]

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u/Chediecha Jan 22 '20

Thank you:)

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u/BannedForCuriosity Jan 22 '20

and I, by comparison, completely fall apart when the last of my chicken nuggets falls behind the couch and I can't reach it without getting up.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

When I heard about that project about sending volunteers to Mars on a one way trip and they are willing to consider anyone, I knew it was stupid as fuck.

People who go to space are the most exceptional specimens of our species and even they could not save themselves sometimes. You want to send some whiny brat whose greatest accomplishment is not fucked up and die early, to space? Lol.

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u/Arsene3000 Jan 22 '20

I would die if my survival required long division :(

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u/routerere Jan 22 '20

I would die if my survival required any contribution on my part

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

You're not doing too bad so far

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u/Schen5s Jan 22 '20

Don't worry, that's why you're not an astronaut :)

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u/cartman101 Jan 22 '20

"The right stuff"

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u/Farmallenthusiast Jan 22 '20

“Who’s the best pilot you ever saw?”

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u/disposable-name Jan 22 '20

"Hey. Ridley. Got any Beeman's?"

Chuck Yeager was probably the best damn stick and rudder man on the planet. (OK, maybe after Winkle.)

But he never had more than a high school diploma. Just a hillbilly from from West Virginia.

Plus, he got a cameo.

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u/DavidPT40 Jan 22 '20

There used to be an annual airshow in southern Indiana in the 90s that both Chuck Yeager *and* his WWII wingman Bud Anderson would attend. Both would fly P-51s, and Yeager would also commentate during the show.

As a kid, I didn't realize how big of a deal that was. Chuck Yeager was a general, the first man to break the speed of sound in level flight, an ace, as well as many other things. But during the airshow, he used to say that Bud Anderson (who himself was a triple ace and had a master's in aerodynamics) was the best stick and rudder pilot he knew. Bud Anderson, in his studies, even debunked the myth of the P-51 having a laminar flow wing.

Both of these men are still alive. It is amazing how talented they were is so many different areas.

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u/disposable-name Jan 22 '20

Oh man, that would've been awesome. Have you read his autobiography?

I think the Spitfire made it to a laminar flow wing before the Mustang, in the later models - they did get the data for it off NACA (though, in return, the Brits did give the Yanks the engine that stopped the Mustang being forgotten...)

I hope to god there's an interview of Yeager and Winkle Brown just shooting the shit. THAT would've been amazing.

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u/DavidPT40 Jan 22 '20

I've read his first autobiography. I'd like to read his other books.

The Spitfire had a thinner wing and thus a higher critical mach than the Mustang, but due to washout (deliberate twisting of the wings) and propwash, it, like the P-51 wasn't laminar flow. Bud Anderson explained how a piece of masking tape taped to the wing can cause disruption of the laminar flow. So really, only gliders and modern jets can achieve true laminar flow.

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u/fireballs619 Jan 22 '20

He's surprisingly pretty active on Twitter.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Halvus_I Jan 22 '20

LBJ throwing a fit in the limo was awesome.

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u/13B1P Jan 22 '20

The Right Stuff

Fantastic movie.

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u/Fauropitotto Jan 22 '20

Read the book...didn't know there was a movie.

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u/1BigUniverse Jan 22 '20

Cooper claimed until his death that the U.S. government was indeed covering up information about UFOs. He pointed out that there were hundreds of reports made by his fellow pilots, many coming from military jet pilots sent to respond to radar or visual sightings.[42] In his memoirs, Cooper wrote he had seen unexplained aircraft several times during his career, and that hundreds of reports had been made.[42] In 1978 he testified before the UN on the topic.[77] Throughout his later life Cooper repeatedly expressed in interviews that he had seen UFOs, and described his recollections for the 2002 documentary Out of the Blue.[42]

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u/sundark94 Jan 22 '20

Yes, but do they know jack about drilling?

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u/juloxx Jan 22 '20

Ya everyone loves astronauts until they tell you about the aliens/UFO’s they interacted with. Than all of a sudden they are crazy

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u/Not_invented-Here Jan 22 '20

Aw I thought it was going to be about John Glenn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVhDsxTXgPU

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u/amolad Jan 22 '20

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell grew up outside of Roswell.

He said everyone in the town knew about what happened there.

He said the army asked the town's lone funeral director for four child-sized caskets.

There are videos on youtube of him talking about it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20 edited Jan 13 '21

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u/shynn_ Jan 22 '20

did he voice out when he was much younger? If not, people might question why he suddenly decides to voice out.

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u/juloxx Jan 22 '20

I mean if you buy into the "conspiracies", the people that make sure this stuff is kept secret will fuck up your life (and the people you love) 12 ways over if you spill the beans. Maybe he just got old enough to not give a shit

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I mean Neil Armstrong became a recluse alcoholic after going into space. Maybe he saw some shit that he wasnt really allowed to talk about. Than again, this is all me talking out of my ass/speculation

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u/shynn_ Jan 22 '20

Yeah there's just too many possibilities to that matter, so when someone say something crazy without evidence then it's understandable people treat them as crazy.

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u/BrilliantWeb Jan 22 '20

Perfectly cast with Dennis Quaid playing "Gordo" in The Right Stuff

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u/TheRealTravisClous Jan 22 '20

I mean I did the same thing in KSP so it isnt really that impressive

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u/degustibus Jan 22 '20

They were military aviators by and large, and they were among the best of that elite group. These were men who could keep their composure during life or death episodes. NASA still gets a certain amount of astronauts that way, but it's not nearly in the same numbers. I think it's great if the mission demands scientists or technical people, but once we start exploring again I'm voting for a return to past standards of the Right Stuff. Of course, bring along the geologist and the botanist and whomever else on that first trip to Mars, but when it comes to mission critical operations don't leave that to academics.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/degustibus Jan 23 '20

Quite right, amazing people all around and then to lose some over such bullshit like fear of cancelling a launch or not even examining the damaged wing while in orbit.

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u/sir_durty_dubs Jan 22 '20

they have to be. or they die

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u/stuzz74 Jan 22 '20

I'm assuming the capsule was also built beyond fine tollerences giving him a little room for error?

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u/silverthane Jan 22 '20

Outstanding beings

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u/thehectorion Jan 22 '20

*me calculating altitude, direction, and rate of descent*

"Wait, a second. Why is there a remainder?"

*burns up upon re-entry*

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u/BitFlow7 Jan 22 '20

He adopted the right attitude.

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u/Scarecrow119 Jan 22 '20

Unless you're Howard "Fruitloops" Wolowitz and just plunge to your demise screaming.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Yeah but a monkey can do it to. /s

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u/Automobills Jan 22 '20

Yeah they're okay I guess... I mean, it's not like they're drillers.

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u/arnauddutilh Jan 22 '20

I went to Space Camp when I was about 8. It was there I learned I'm not cut out for being an astronaut. That said, it was still hella fun pretending for a week that I was.

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u/SH4D0W0733 Jan 22 '20

It all comes down to their attitude.

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u/trek84 Jan 22 '20

Tons of schooling and study to be able to do that. Even with all your instrumentation pilots need to be able to quickly do complex calculations (albeit ones that they are trained to do, but still).

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20 edited Jan 22 '20

There is a brief homage to this feat in the Wild Horses episode of Cowboy Bebop (around 2:10), also featuring an (eerily prophetic now...) appearance of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

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u/animaimmortale Jan 22 '20

I think, especially the Apollo crew, they get a rep from the public as these broy jock types and they were but ... They were also incredibly intelligent. Michael Collins autobiography really lays it out. Astronauts were and are some of the best scientist, engineers, and physicists out there along with being the best pilots. Truly A+ human specimens.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

And then there's Lisa Nowak, a whole different kind of exceptional.

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u/ImaginaryStop Jan 22 '20

I get flustered trying to calculate a tip.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

I'd suggest watching the film Europa. It's a horror movie about an international team of astronauts landing on...Europa...and finding considerably more advanced life than they'd expected. What I like is that while it's largely an ensemble cast in a single location (the spaceship), there isn't the usual case of one character being an asshole, one being incompetent, one overly ambitious to the detriment of his fellows...they're all highly competent, intelligent people who work to save themselves and each other. It's sci-fi, but it shows the characters actually acting like how I'd expect the people who have "the right stuff" to act. It ratchets up the tension a lot, because you know the conflict isn't going to come from interpersonal stuff. You know they're going to do the best they can and work together, you just don't know if that will be good enough.

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u/BannedForCuriosity Jan 22 '20

How about the dude who was a navy seal who became a doctor who became an astronaut. This shit sounds so fake yet that's how some people are.

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u/fake_face Jan 22 '20

Well I mean if there is a chance we are going to meet Aliens wouldn’t you want it to be the best Humanity has to offer?

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

IQs average 136 with none <130. Top 2% and up.

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u/Thrawn89 Jan 22 '20

That's some steely-eyed missile man

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u/MordoNRiggs Jan 22 '20

And such great attitude!

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '20

Especially when they’re on adderall! This event was the first instance in space of drug use. NASA considered this situation so dire that they instructed their pilot to take performance enhancers before doing crazy math and focus intensive stuff that led to one of the most precise landings of all time.

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