On Jun 9, 4:55 pm, wrote:
I wrote:
And there are several
key points that I have not seen mentioned here yet. First off, Nagel
does not hold the record for lowest airspeed touchdown.

One other key point that I intended to mention...

Perhaps the most important Big Picture point to make in all this is
that STS-37 was Not the last flight that Nagel made. NASA was
distraught over his performance to the point where they gave him
command of STS-55 which flew two years later (someone probably had a
good laugh when he was sent back to Edwards to land that last time).
Also, the right seater's career got hampered to the point where he was
upgraded to CDR on his next mission. NASA gave him command of a
landing at KSC, not only once but TWO times after STS-37.

~ CT


Although according to Burrough's "Dragonfly" Nagel was later denied
command of STS-71 (the first Mir docking), even though he was the
choice of then-chief of the astronaut office Hoot Gibson. But that
may have been unrelated to what happened on STS-37 (as there is
nothing done by George Abbey ever that points to why he made his
decisions).

But yeah, STS-37 didn't seem to seriously hamper Nagel's career. As
pointed out he got a second flight as CDR and the PLT flew two flights
as CDR. Nagel is still with NASA as a research pilot last I checked.

-A.L.