Now 85, Collins was picked by NASA to be an astronaut in 1963. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 10 with John Young in 1966, and he flew again on Apollo 11 in 1969, the first moon landing mission with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Collins orbited the moon in the Command Module Columbia while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the surface in the Lunar Module Eagle. After a day on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility, they rendezvoused with Collins and returned to Earth.
Charlie Duke served as capsule communicator during the first lunar landing of Apollo 11. He made his own walk on the lunar surface as lunar module pilot three years later on Apollo 16, the 10th of 12 moonwalkers, with mission commander John Young.
Part of Gemini 8 and Apollo 9 and 15, Scott was the first to drive the lunar rover, landing his Apollo 15 LM Falcon in the northern mountains of the Hadley-Apennine region in mid-1971. Apollo 15 was the first real scientific exploration of the moon, and the two moonwalkers (Scott and Jim Irwin) spent nearly three days on the surface. The entire crew was schooled in geological skills, and it paid off with an unprecedented amount of meaningful rock samples and lunar photography.
Major General Joe H. Engle
Engle earned his astronaut wings on June 29, 1965, flying the X-15 aircraft to an altitude of 280,600 feet, becoming the youngest pilot to qualify as an astronaut. Three of his 16 flights in the X-15 exceeded the 50-mile (264,000 ft) altitude required for astronaut rating. In March 1966, Engle was one of 19 pilots selected for the NASA astronaut program, serving as support for Apollo 10 and the back-up Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 14 mission. During 1977, Engle was the commander of one of two crews that flew the initial Space Shuttle Enterprise approach and landing test flights. Enterprise was flown off the top of a modified Boeing 747 for a 2 ½ minute glide test flight from 20,000 feet to landing. On Nov.12, 1981, Engle commanded the second orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. On this flight he became the first and only pilot to manually fly an aerospace vehicle from Mach 25 to landing. Engle commanded the Space Shuttle Discovery on flight 51-I which launched on Aug. 27, 1985 to deploy three communications satellites and perform an on-orbit rendezvous and manual repair of the disabled SYNCOM communications satellite.
Col. Karol J. “Bo” Bobko
A graduate of the first class of the USAF Academy in 1959, Bobko was first selected as an Air Force astronaut for the MOL program after graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards AFB. When that was canceled, he moved to NASA, where he participated in the Skylab Medical Experiments Altitude Tests (SMEAT). He was then on the support crew for the Apollo Soyuz mission, and was support crew and capcom for the ALT flights with Fred Haise and Joe Engle. His first spaceflight was as pilot for STS-6 with Paul Weitz as mission commander. This was the first flight of the shuttle Challenger. He went on to command STS-51D, with Astronaut Rhea Seddon on board for her first flight. He then went on to command the first flight of the shuttle Atlantis.
Paul J. Weitz
Weitz served as pilot on the crew of Skylab-2 (SL-2), which launched on May 25 and ended on June 22, 1973. SL-2 was the first manned Skylab mission, and activated a 28-day flight. In logging 672 hours and 49 minutes aboard the orbital workshop, the crew established what was then a new world record for a single mission. Mr. Weitz also logged 2 hours and 11 minutes in extravehicular activities.
Weitz was spacecraft commander on the crew of STS-6, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 4, 1983. This was the maiden voyage of the Orbiter Challenger. During the mission, the crew conducted numerous experiments in materials processing and recorded lightning activities.
Nicole Stott is a veteran of two spaceflights and 104 days living and working in space on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS), including 3 Space Shuttle missions and one spacewalk. She is also a NASA Aquanaut and is the holder of the women’s world record for saturation diving following her 18-day mission with the NEEMO9 crew on the Aquarius undersea habitat.
Seeing the Earth from space, Nicole had an epiphany. After 28 years with NASA, she has begun her next adventure as a full-time artist and motivational speaker.
Vance Brand
Brand initially was a crew member in the thermal vacuum chamber testing of the prototype Command Module 2TV-1 and support crewman on Apollo 8 and 13. Later he was backup command module pilot for Apollo 15 and backup commander for Skylabs 3 and 4. As an astronaut he held management positions relating to spacecraft development, acquisition, flight safety and mission operations. He got to finally pilot an Apollo spacecraft on the final mission, the historic linkup, Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. Vance stayed on with NASA, eventually becoming a three-time Space shuttle commander.
Jim McDivitt
McDivitt was picked by NASA to be an astronaut as part of the “New Nine”, the second group after the first seven, in 1961. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini IV, as the rookie commander on the first long-duration flight (four days.) The highlight of the mission was the iconic first American spacewalk by Jim’s neighbor and lifelong buddy and fellow New-Niner, Ed White. The memorable photos and video were shot by McDivitt, standing up in his seat with his hatch open.
McDivitt also flew as commander of Apollo 9, the shakedown cruise of the LM, in Earth orbit for a lunar-landing length 10-day flight. Apollo 9 was largely overlooked and under-documented because Apollo 8 had already gone to the moon, minus the LM, four months before. Shortly afterward, he became manager of Lunar Landing Operations, and then manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program for all subsequent landings except 17. He retired from NASA and the USAF as Brigadier General in June 1972 at age 43. Never looking back, he became successful in the business world serving on many boards of directors.
SOURCE: Spacefest; NASA.
