Armstrong as Gemini 13 Advocate And, Consequently, Apollo 11 Commander?

I read this bald statement, featuring no causality, in a picture caption in
a slick, soft-cover book done in 1994 for the 25th anniversary of the first
lunar landing.

Might anyone know "how it works"? I know that Armstrong backed up Apollo 8
as Commander; does his advocating Gemini 13 set up the situation by which he
obtained that seat?

By the way, found this group by a search regarding this question. Great
group, great discussions. Thanks much!

In article ,
Eddie Valiant wrote:
...In fact, all the Apollo commanders with the
exception of Shephard had commanded Gemini flights which I think may
have given them the nod for a command in Apollo.

To some extent, I think it's the other way 'round: these were people that
Slayton thought well of, and that put them at the top of the list for both
Gemini and Apollo.

In fact, it put them at the top of the list for selection in the second
batch of astronauts, too. Slayton wasn't really interested in scouring
the services for people -- he wanted specific guys, guys he knew
personally to be good or had recommended to him by people he trusted.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |

In fact, all the Apollo commanders with the
exception of Shephard had commanded Gemini flights which I think may
have given them the nod for a command in Apollo.

Well, Dave Scott and Gene Cernan flew on Gemini but didn't COMMAND missions and
they commanded Apollo flights.

Certainly the Gemini commanders were highly ranked by Slayton however.

-A.L.

In article ,
Eddie Valiant wrote:
To some extent, I think it's the other way 'round: these were people that
Slayton thought well of, and that put them at the top of the list for both
Gemini and Apollo.

Really? I would think that an earlier command in Gemini played some
part in their eventual selection as Apollo commanders, wouldn't it?

You really can't tell which was cause and which was effect. You can
equally claim that they were selected as Apollo commanders for exactly the
same reason(s) they were selected as Gemini commanders.

Grissom got assigned the first Apollo flight, and got quietly penciled in
for the first lunar landing, despite having commanded a Gemini for less
than five hours. And the next-shortest Gemini flight was commanded by the
guy who actually made the first landing.
--
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well. |

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 19:12:26 GMT, "Dan Todd"
wrote:

I read this bald statement, featuring no causality, in a picture caption in
a slick, soft-cover book done in 1994 for the 25th anniversary of the first
lunar landing.

Might anyone know "how it works"? I know that Armstrong backed up Apollo 8
as Commander; does his advocating Gemini 13 set up the situation by which he
obtained that seat?

While others here can certainly speak with more authority on this
topic than I, the short answer is no. The long and short of it is
that Armstrong was Borman's backup, Conrad was McDivitt's. When
Borman and McDivitt switched flights, so did their backups which
effectively put Armstrong in the left seat on 11 rather than Conrad.

And if you look at the early Apollo flights all of them, with the
exception of Apollo 7 commanded by Wally Schirra, were commanded by
astronauts selected in the second group known as the New Nine [Borman
on 8, McDivitt on 9, Stafford on 10, Armstrong on 11, Conrad on 12,
and Lovell on 13]. In fact, all the Apollo commanders with the
exception of Shephard had commanded Gemini flights which I think may
have given them the nod for a command in Apollo.

Others can jump in and correct or amend where I'm wrong, but I think
that's a fair assessment.

By the way, found this group by a search regarding this question. Great
group, great discussions. Thanks much!

Welcome aboard.

Eddie V.

On 28 Nov 2003 00:22:49 GMT, (MasterShrink)
wrote:

In fact, all the Apollo commanders with the
exception of Shephard had commanded Gemini flights which I think may
have given them the nod for a command in Apollo.

Well, Dave Scott and Gene Cernan flew on Gemini but didn't COMMAND missions and
they commanded Apollo flights.

Yes, I know. I was referring to the earlier Apollo commanders I had
mentioned in my first post.

Eddie V.

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 21:28:32 GMT, (Henry Spencer)
wrote:

In article ,
Eddie Valiant wrote:
...In fact, all the Apollo commanders with the
exception of Shephard had commanded Gemini flights which I think may
have given them the nod for a command in Apollo.

To some extent, I think it's the other way 'round: these were people that
Slayton thought well of, and that put them at the top of the list for both
Gemini and Apollo.

Really? I would think that an earlier command in Gemini played some
part in their eventual selection as Apollo commanders, wouldn't it?
While I'm not discounting Slayton's tendency to utilize people he
thought well of in command positions, was it really his overriding
motivation in filling those slots?

In fact, it put them at the top of the list for selection in the second
batch of astronauts, too. Slayton wasn't really interested in scouring
the services for people -- he wanted specific guys, guys he knew
personally to be good or had recommended to him by people he trusted.

Eddie V.