"MasterDebater" wrote:
[snipped and rearranged your response]
Thank you for the explanation, though I must admit in all candor that, after
reading it, I still don't understand why Stafford commanded an Apollo mission
before Armstrong, though it was certainly lucky for Armstrong that this occurred.
The important point here is that Stafford was elevated up the pecking
order by the deaths of See and Bassett. Up until that time (28 Feb 66) he was
the backup CDR of GT-9 which should have seen him fly as CDR of GT-12. Lovell
would not have commanded a Gemini at all.
I think it is clear that all of the New-Nine would have commanded a Gemini
before any got to command a second time, otherwise how do we explain the fact
that this is exactly what occurred. This is too much of a coincidence. Therefore,
if Gemini had continued beyond Gemini 12, I believe that White would have commanded
Gemini 13.
Ed White was backup CDR of Gemini 7, putting him in line to command Gemini 10. Deke
then moved him to the Apollo 1 crew as CMP, and replaced him with John Young. Recent
insights into Deke's planning say that White was going to be moved on to AAP after
Apollo 1, so it seems debatable that he would have got a Gemini command in any
circumstances.
The first four Apollo crews were formed in December '65/January '66 -
Grissom (backup McDivitt) and Schirra (backup Borman). This was just after the
Gemini 7/6 flights. In theory the next few Apollo CDRs would have been Armstrong,
See, Young, Conrad and then Stafford. We know from Slayton that he wasn't
planning to use See on Apollo, and at that time he planned to utilise Young and
Stafford as CMPs. Armstrong and Conrad were pencilled in as the next two Apollo
CDRs.
I also seems clear that the flight rotation was reset to the beginning at
the beginning of Apollo, thus Mercury vets were assigned first, then New-Nine in
the original order McDivitt, Borman, Armstrong, Stafford, etc.
The Gemini flight crews were mainly chosen with later Apollo crews in mind, but
the "normal" flight rotation wasn't particularly relevant - if there were reasons
to fly someone "out of sequence" it would have been done.
Thus the order: Grissom, Schirra, McDivitt, Borman, Armstrong, Stafford;
along with the understanding that the fifth mission would be the landing would put
Armstrong for the landing.
There was no understanding that the fifth mission would be the landing. And anyway,
Gus would have flown the first landing. Also, as I said before, Conrad was ahead
of Armstrong until the switch of missions for 8 & 9.
After the fire, the order was probably revised, putting Stafford ahead of
Armstrong so as to preserve Armstrong's previous spot [the landing].
As I said before - perhaps not very clearly - in December 1966 (before the fire),
Deke had six crews in training, prime and backup for three missions. The CDRs
were Grissom, McDivitt & Borman, with backups of Schirra, Stafford & Conrad. So,
before the fire, Stafford was in the rotation while Armstrong wasn't. Hypothetically
at that time Stafford was in line for the G mission, although that assumes that
Schirra would have been recycled to fly the F mission, which is possible but it
would have been with a new crew.
Following the fire the Schirra crew moved from backup for the C mission to prime,
with the other two backup crews (Stafford & Conrad) moving up one mission - so
Conrad replaced Stafford as potential CDR for the G mission. Armstrong came into
the schedule as backup to Borman with the potential to command the second landing.
It wasn't until August 1968 when the 8 & 9 crews swapped missions that Armstrong
moved ahead of Conrad.
It might be worth repeating a couple of points.
Stafford was ranked behind Armstrong throughout Gemini - he only flew 9 because
See was killed. He was supposed to fly 12 before moving on to Apollo. Because
he flew 9 in June 1966 he was available for Apollo training in July. Armstrong,
as backup CDR of Gemini 11 wasn't available for Apollo training until September
1966. At that time (September '66), Stafford was assigned as Borman's CMP while
Armstrong was just starting Apollo training. Stafford was "promoted" to CDR in
December after about five months Apollo training - Armstrong was still 2-3
months behind him. The New-Nine flight order could have been preserved by
putting Armstrong ahead of Stafford as backup CDR of Apollo 2, which would have
put him in line for the G mission (ignoring that Gus would have got the G mission)
- that wasn't done.
--
Brian Lawrence
Wantage, Oxfordshire, UK
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