Apollo 7 question?

Question

NASA wanted to change the flight plan of Apollo 7 DURING the mission. Wally Schirra got mad at that! Chris Kraft thought Wally was wrong to be angry. Who was right? I think Wally was.

Answer 1

It's a very gray area... the Apollo capsule, which every astronaut hated when first presented, was performing better than expected during the flight.

In light of it's good performance, Kraft wanted to push it a little closer to the limits, ultimately testing it for the lunar missions it was going to be expected to perform for, and Schirra said, "Stick to the mission manual."

If Apollo 7 went well, they had semi-promised that Apollo 8 would circum-navigate the moon... which is a **big** step after only having tested a space craft once. While it worked... I think 9 should've been the lunar mission, with 8 still shaking out the bugs. I don't want to say they got lucky, but I will say they were awfully ambitious awfully quick with the new program - especially considering the Apollo 1 fire.

Answer 2

Schirra was justifiably upset with ground controllers for trying to push the program just when he thought it should be taking cautious steps. The men on the ground had already broken a promise to him that the mission would be scrubbed if the winds were more than 20knots and heading inland. He had insisted this be written in as a mission rule because the couches in his capsule could not adequately cushion the astronauts against a land impact if an abort took place and the winds blew the capsule back over the land rather than letting it end up in the sea as planned. The winds were high enough to justify a scrub according to that rule, but everyone was pushing for a launch. From then on they tried to work in unscheduled TV shows, new tests, all things that had not been agreed beforehand. Schirra was conscious of the fact that precisely this kind of 'go fever' had been at least in part responsible for the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew, so he thought they should be treading carefully, and I agree.

That said, it seems his attitude could have been better. A reasoned discussion about why such an unscheduled experiment should not be squeezed in would have been better than the sharp retorts and insults that the crew gave.

Answer 3

Wally was also a little cranky because of the cold he was suffering from. (anyone remember the Actifed commercials?)

I thought the main blowup between Shirra and Kraft was over mission control requiring Wally to wear his helmet during re-entry.

Answer 4

htey both died within five years of this event caus ethey said they were going to "TALK" meaning they where going to let America know the Governments little secret......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations