At the end of 1963, only four of the original seven astronauts was still on flying status. Slayton was sidelined before the first Mercury launch by an irregular heartbeat. Glenn was deemed too important to risk. Shepard, who had already been scheduled to fly the first manned Gemini mission, was grounded by an inner ear problem that had been diagnosed as Ménière's disease. And Scott Carpenter had incurred the wrath of NASA leaders in the aftermath of his Aurora 7 flight. Flight Director Chris Kraft later wrote, “I swore an oath that Scott Carpenter would never again fly in space.” Only Grissom, Schirra and Cooper would go on to fly Gemini.
NASA began interviewing for its third group of Astronauts in May of 1963. For the first time, the agency lifted the test pilot qualification, but it still required this group have experience flying military jets. The new group was formally announced on October 18th, 1963.
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr
Born: January 20, 1930
Hometown: Glen Ridge, New Jersey
Service: Air Force
Buzz graduated from the Military Academy at West Point in 1951 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He became an Air Force combat pilot in the Korean War. He went on to study at MIT and earned a doctorate in astronauts in January of 1963. His thesis was entitled Line-of-Sight Guidance Techniques for Manned Orbital Rendezvous. The Air Force then assigned him to work on the Agena Target Vehicle which was being developed for use in the Gemini Program. Aldrin had applied to become an astronaut in 1962 but was rejected because he wasn't a test pilot. This time around, he was qualified and selected. His fellow astronauts called him Doctor Rendezvous.
After his Apollo 11 flight, Aldrin became involved in the design of the Space Shuttle. He retired from NASA in 1971 and returned to the Air Force. He became the Commandant of the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base. He retired from the Air Force in March of 1972.
Aldrin wrote of his struggles with clinical depression and alcoholism in his biographies Return to Earth and Magnificent Desolation. He would go on to write a number of other books and made a number of appearances as himself on television and in films.
Aldrin has been a tireless advocate for a mission to Mars. He proposed the Aldrin cycler, which would allow for travel to and from the Red Planet using less fuel.
William Anders
Born: October 17, 1933
Hometown: Hong Kong
Service: Air Force
Anders' father was a Lieutenant in the Navy, and he was born in Hong Kong. They lived for a time in Annapolis but had returned to China when the Japanese attacked in 1937. He and his mother fled to Canton (now Guangzhou), where they watched a Japanese air raid. They escaped China, sailing down the heavily mined Pearl River before making their way to the Philippines.
In 1951, he entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering, he joined the Air Force and became a fighter pilot. He continued his education at the Air Force Institute of Technology, where he earned a Masters in nuclear engineering.
After his Apollo 8 flight, he became the Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. In 1973, he was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission, and two years later he became Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. President Ford named him to be the Ambassador to Norway in 1976.
He went on to work for General Electric, Textron and General Dynamics, where he eventually became Chairman and CEO of the company until his retirement in 1994.
Charles Bassett II
Born: December 30, 1931
Hometown: Dayton, Ohio
Service: Air Force
Bassett began his education at Ohio State University in 1950, but two years later joined the Air Force. He trained as a fighter pilot and served in Korea after the war had ended. He continued his education at Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University), earning a degree in electrical engineering. He attended both the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School and the Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.
After becoming an astronaut, he was assigned in November 1965 to be the pilot of the Gemini 9 mission with commander Elliot See.
Both Bassett and See were killed on February 28, 1966 when their T-38 trainer crashed into the McDonnell Space Center in St. Louis.
Alan L. Bean
Born: March 15, 1932
Hometown: Wheeler, Texas
Service: Navy
Bean studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Texas in Austin, where he was a member of the Navy ROTC program. After graduating in 1955, he was commissioned and began flight training. In 1960, he went to the Navy Test Pilot School, where one of his instructors was Pete Conrad.
Bean had applied, and been rejected for NASA's second astronaut group, but made the cut in 1963.
He resigned from the Navy in October 1975 but stayed on with NASA until 1981, working as the head of the Astronaut Candidate Operations and Training Group.
After NASA, Bean became a full-time painter, and the Moon is his favorite subject. "I'm the only one who can paint the Moon," he said, "because I'm the only one who knows whether that's right or not."
Eugene "Gene" Cernan
Born: March 14, 1934
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Service: Navy
Cernan attended Purdue University on a partial NROTC scholarship, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering in 1956. He joined the Navy and became a fighter pilot. He graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School with a master’s in aeronautical engineering in 1963.
In 1976, Cernan retired from the Navy and NASA. He went into private business. In 1987, he became a commentator for ABC News. His memoirs of his Navy and NASA years, The Last Man on the Moon, was published in 1999. He was highly critical in 2010 of the decision to cancel NASA’s Constellation program.
Roger Chaffee
Born: February 15, 1935
Hometown: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Service: Navy
Chaffee’s father had been a barnstorming pilot and instilled a love of flying in him, taking him on his first flight when he was just seven. After high school, Chaffee turned down an appointment to the Naval Academy, taking an NROTC scholarship at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He transferred to Purdue University in 1954 to study aeronautical engineering. He couldn’t afford the lessons to get a private pilot’s license on his own, but the NROTC program sponsored him and got his wings just before graduating with honors from Purdue. He got his naval aviator wings in early 1959.
Chaffee flew 82 missions over Cuba before and during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was attending the Air Force Institute of Technology when he learned he’d been selected to become an astronaut.
Michael Collins
Born: October 31, 1930
Hometown: Rome, Italy
Service: Air Force
Collins was born in Rome, Italy, where his father served as the U.S. military attaché. Like other military families, the Collins family moved quite often. Collins took his first flight aboard an amphibious military plane while living in Puerto Rico, and the pilot let him take control during part of the flight. He was accepted at West Point and graduated in 1952. He took his commission in the Air Force where he earned his pilot’s wings. In 1960, he was admitted to the Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, part of the same class as future astronauts Frank Borman, Tom Stafford, and Jim Irwin.
NASA initially rejected his application to be part of the second class of astronauts, so Collins took a postgraduate course in the basics of spaceflight at the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot. He applied again for NASA’s third class of astronaut and was accepted.
After he left NASA in 1970, he became the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs for a year and then the Director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and later the undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980, he went to work for as a vice president of LTV Aerospace. In 1985, he started his own consulting firm. He wrote several books, including an autobiography entitled Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys.
Walter Cunningham
Born: March 16, 1932
Hometown: Creston, Iowa
Service: Marine Corps
Cunningham joined the Navy right out of high school and was selected for flight training in 1952. He flew missions for the Marine Corps in Korea, starting shortly after the end of the war. He served in the Marine Corps reserve from 1956 to 1975.
Cunningham earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in physics from UCLA before going to work for the RAND Corporation for three years before he was selected as an astronaut.
After the flight on Apollo 7, Cunningham worked in the Skylab section of the Astronaut Office before he retired from NASA in 1971. He became a radio talk show host.
Donn Eisele
Born: June 23, 1930
Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
Service: Air Force
Eisele graduated from the Naval Academy in 1952 and took a commission in the Air Force where he became a pilot. He later attended the Air Force Institute of Technology, earning a master’s degree in astronautics. In 1962, he attended the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.
Eisele left the Astronaut Officer in 1970 and went to work at NASA’s Langley Research Center until he retired from both the Air Force and NASA in 1972. He served as the Country Director for the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand for two years before going into private business. He also served for one year on the Wilton Manors, Florida City Commission.
Theodore Freeman
Born: February 18, 1930
Hometown: Haverford, Pennsylvania
Service: Air Force
As a child, Freeman spent as much time as he could at a local airport, refueling and repairing airplanes to earn money for rides and for flying lessons. He got his pilot license at 16.
Freeman had his heart set on attending the Naval Academy but was rejected because his teeth were crooked. Undeterred, he studied for a year at the University of Delaware while undergoing a series of procedures to straighten his teeth. That got him into the Naval Academy, where graduated in 1953. After joining the Air Force and becoming a pilot, he got a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1960. He attended the Air Force’s Experimental Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School.
After being accepted by NASA, Freeman was assigned to help in the development of boosters.
A year later, he was killed when his T-38 jet collided with a goose as he was approaching Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. He tried to land but realized he was going to be short of the runway and might hit military housing. He pulled away and ejected, but his parachute didn’t open in time.
Richard "Dick" Gordon
Born: October 5, 1929
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Service: Navy
Gordon studied at the University of Washington, graduating with a degree in chemistry in 1951. He joined the Navy and became a fighter pilot. In 1957, he became a test pilot at the Naval Test Pilot School. In 1961, we won the Bendix Trophy, flying an F-4H Phantom II from Los Angeles to New York in two hours and forty-seven minutes at an average speed of 869 miles per hour.
After his flight to the Moon on Apollo 12, he had been scheduled to be the Commander of Apollo 18. Budget cuts forced the cancellation of Apollo 18, and Gordon went to work as the Chief of Advanced Programs and helped in the design of the Space Shuttle before his retirement in 1972.
That same year, he became the Executive Vice President of the New Orleans Saints for five seasons. He later worked a variety of companies, including Scott Science and Technology and Astro Sciences Corporation.
Russell "Rusty" Schweickart
Born: October 25, 1935
Hometown: Neptune, New Jersey
Service: Air Force
Schweickart grew up on a farm in New Jersey, and like other kids his age, dreamed of becoming a cowboy or a pilot. He won a scholarship from MIT, graduating with a degree in aeronautical engineering in 1956. He joined the Air Force and became a pilot. He returned to MIT, working in the Experimental Astronomy Laboratory and earning a master’s degree in 1963.
After suffering from space sickness, now known as space adaptation sickness, during his flight on Apollo 9, he spent six months helping NASA investigate the condition. When that testing concluded, Schweickart was assigned to the Skylab project, but only served as the backup Commander of Skylab 2.
He was reassigned in 1974 to become the Director of User Affairs in the NASA Office of Applications. He retired from NASA in 1977. California Governor Jerry Brown made him his assistant for science and technology and then appointed him to the California Energy Commission. After leaving public service, he worked for communications and satellite companies. He founded the B612 Foundation in 2002, which studies the dangers posed to Earth by asteroid impacts.
David Scott
Born: June 6, 1932
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Service: Air Force
Scott’s father was a U.S. Army Air Corps fighter pilot, and before World War II, his family would live for a time in Indiana and then the Philippines. He grew up wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps. He began his education in engineering at the University of Michigan but was able to transfer to West Point. After graduating in 1954, he took a commission in the Air Force. He spent four years based in the Netherlands before enrolling at MIT to study aeronautics before graduating with a master’s degree in 1962. The Air Force assigned him to teach at the newly established Air Force Academy, but he was able to get those orders changed and attended both the Air Force Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
His first assignment for NASA was at MIT, helping supervise the work being done on the Apollo Guidance Computer.
After his flight on Apollo 15, Scott and the rest of his crew were caught up in a controversy. They had been paid about seven thousand dollars each to carry 400 postal covers to the Moon, without the approval of his boss Deke Slayton. A hundred of them wound up in the hands of a German stamp dealer who offered them for sale. When Slayton discovered what had happened, he removed all three as the backup crew for Apollo 17. NASA officially reprimanded them for poor judgment.
There was another controversy involving a small statue, Fallen Astronaut, that he placed on the surface of the Moon along with a plaque listing the names of the fourteen astronauts and cosmonauts who had died during training. It had been created by Belgian sculptor Paul Van Hoeydonck. Scott thought the agreement he’d made with Van Hoeydonck would keep the artist anonymous and allow him to make one copy to sell at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. After Apollo 15, Hoeydonck was angry that he wasn’t publicly identified as the artist, and announced plans to sell five hundred copies. NASA threatened legal action, and Hoeydonck agreed to sell only one copy, to the Air and Space Museum as he had early agreed. He gave a second copy to the King of Belgium.
After that, Scott was assigned to be a special assistant in the lead up to 1975’s Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, working closely with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. And he went to work at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, where he resigned from the Air Force to become the Center’s Director in 1975. Two years later, he retired from NASA. He would go on to found Scott Science and Technology, Inc. In 2004, he and Leonov wrote about a book, Two Sides of the Moon about their experiences during the Space Race.
Clifton Williams
Born: September 26, 1932
Hometown: Mobile, Alabama
Service: Marine Corp
Williams attended Auburn University where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1954. He joined the Marines and earned his wings in 1956. He attended the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland.
After being selected in 1963, he served as the backup pilot for Gemini I0 and was assigned to become the Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 12.
He died on October 5, 1967, when the T-38 he was flying from Patrick Air Force Base to visit his parents in Mobile crashed near Tallahassee.
they seemed to move between services easily...interesting