Personal Recollections of the Selection
of the First Seven Astronauts.
Continued...

Help Wanted: “Forty Scientific Specialists to be Engaged on Special Research Projects”

So early in December [1958] we drafted what was designed to be a public recruiting and examination announcement. We first titled it “Research Astronaut” and later “Aeronautical and Space Scientist, Astronaut.” These were not ordinary jobs, and they needed special exception from the usual Civil Service requirements. Also, it was obviously premature to make anything public as to our plans. So within the next few days we managed to get the Civil Service Commission to publish in the Federal Register an innocuous and brief authorization. It referred to a paragraph number in another document and simply said to add eleven words to that paragraph, “NASA: Forty scientific specialists to be engaged on special research projects.”

Since we had to hedge on the pilot-versus-passenger question, our draft announcement (which never was published) invited applications from a strange array of occupations. Listed were pilots, especially test pilots; crew members of experimental submarines; arctic and Antarctic explorers; parachute jumpers; mountain climbers; deep sea divers; and observers-under-test for extremes of environmental conditions such as acceleration, deceleration, zero gravity, high or low atmospheric pressures, variations in carbon dioxide and oxygen concentration, high and low ambient temperatures, etc. As you can see, our basic concern at this point was with the feared stresses and hazards of launch, space flight, and reentry. We were looking primarily for proven toughness. This draft also listed other requirements, including a college degree in science, engineering, or medicine. It was agreed to by all as the best we would do at the moment.

Five days later, on December 15,1958, the policy question of passenger versus pilot was resolved. The astronauts would play an important role during even the first flights. They would monitor and adjust the cabin environment. They would operate the communications system. They would make physiological, astronomical, and meteorological observations that could not be made by instruments. Most important, they would be able to operate the reaction controls in space, and be capable of initiating descent from orbit. This was the key part—that the astronaut could take over control of the spacecraft itself. It was a major policy decision, strongly desired by the pilots and quite different from the original Soviet policy of having their cosmonauts ride as mere passengers. I think we must all agree that events have proven the wisdom of this American decision. Witness the several potential disasters averted by astronaut action, as well as manual docking, spacewalks, and the manned landings and operations on the moon.

The following day two more changes were made. One change was to give top preference to test pilots, especially those with high-altitude jet aircraft experience. The other was a proposal to ask aircraft companies and selected government agencies, both civilian and military to nominate their best men, and thus put their organizational reputations on the line as to the quality of their nominees.

The big decision day was set for December 17,1958, a meeting of all hands with NASA Administrator Dr. Keith Glennan. He was briefed in detail by various members of the group, agreed to everything as being sound and reasonable, and said that he would see the President in the next day or two.

All was going well. Our open, competitive examination announcement inviting civilians to apply, supplemented by nominations from agencies and companies, would soon be approved and published.

But a few days later the picture suddenly changed. Dr. Glennan had seen and briefed President Eisenhower, who, I was told, vigorously scotched the idea of a public competition to select the first astronauts. As I heard it, his basic motivation was humiliation about Vanguard I, which on the previous December had failed ignominiously before the eyes of the world, after having been announced as intended to orbit the earth as the first U.S. satellite. This embarrassment had not been assuaged by the January success of Explorer I, nor by the eventual March success of Vanguard 11. Thus he rejected anything premature or unproven. He wanted to announce a successful fait accompli. Thus everything had to be kept under wraps, so that the astronauts could be presented publicly after they had already been selected. We had to limit our search to the military, and keep it secret.

So it was back to the drawing board. There was much debate and many proposals, among us and in our advisory committee, right through the Christmas holidays.
Actually two big changes were taking place. One was dictated by the White House: secrecy of operations coupled with limitation of recruiting sources to the military. The other concerned the basic qualifications: what kind of man was now required in view of the newly established duties of the astronaut?

We decided that astronaut-candidates had to be pilots of high-performance jet aircraft. These were the reasons. First, such men were used to flying in the near vacuum of high altitudes, wearing full-pressure suits, including complete gloves, like astronauts would wear. Second, they had to have experienced high G forces of acceleration and deceleration during maneuvers, similar to the G forces of spaceflight launch and reentry. Third, they were accustomed to the numerous instruments and controls of a complex cockpit, which by now we knew would be true of a space capsule.

We also decided that the candidates had to be test pilots of experimental jet aircraft. This was because it was now clear that these men would serve to help develop and constantly improve the spacecraft itself, from flight to flight. They would be a new breed, true spacecraft test pilots, evolved from the nearest existing equivalent—aircraft test pilots.

 

PREVIOUS... ... NEXT