"Brian Lawrence" wrote in message
...
"MasterDebater" wrote:

Here's a question which has been bothering me for awhile.

Why did Tom Stafford command an Apollo mission before Neil Armstrong?

In Gemini, the New-Nine command order (the order in which New-Nine
astronauts commanded missions) was: McDivitt, Borman, Armstrong,
Stafford,
Young, Conrad, Lovell.

But in Apollo, New-Nine commanded in this order: Borman, McDivitt,
Stafford,
Armstrong, Conrad, Lovell. We all understand why McDivitt and Borman
were
switched, of course (due to the LEM not being ready, etc.), But I have
never
found an explanation as to why Stafford commanded a mission ahead of
Armstrong.


[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.


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.

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.

After the fire, the order was probably revised, putting Stafford ahead of
Armstrong
so as to preserve Armstrong's previous spot [the landing].


[snip remainder]