WI: Lunar Gemini

As long as we're going to bitch about the trolling and flaming, somebody
here may as well try and drag it back on topic.

So, aaaa-aaanyway:

Let's say they managed to get some LG missions into the budget: a Centaur
flyby mission, an LEO test of the "Langley Lightest" lander, and a landing
or two.

Who do you think gets these flights, and why? I'm guessing that, given the
talk about Slayton wanting to see one of the O7 on the Moon, Grissom will
get the nod to command/fly the lander on the first LG landing flight, but
what about Conrad? Iirc, he was a real agitator for these missions, and
actually flew the Agena-boosted "high flight", but having flown this one,
would he still get to command an LG landing mission? Here's some SWAGs;
keep in mind I've left out "in-between" flights to try and guess a
possible rotation:

Agena "high-flight": Conrad/Gordon, as it happened
(a couple of LEO lander tests later)
Centaur-boosted lunar flyby w/LM descent test: White/Beano; White
flies the lander
(a couple of lunar flyby transstage tests and a manned lunar orbit/
lander descent test later)
Centaur-boosted first landing mission: Grissom/Conrad; Grissom lands/EVA

....after which Grissom dies in the AS-204 plugs-out accident, as it
happened, but not necessarily at the time it originally did.

So, Pete gets his lunar Gemini flight, Gus is first on the surface as Deke
had hoped, then the First Man On The Moon dies in AS-204. Skip all the
usual debate about whether or not it kills the program*; what does
everybody here think the _cultural_ impact would've been, both inside and
outside the program? (I'm imagining Russia at the time of Gagarin's death,
here).






*I like to think that Apollo development would've continued apace, but
perhaps with the initial lunar landing goal achieved, they could've
concentrated more on the extended lunar stay/AAP end of things (and
perhaps Dick Gordon would've gotten his CDR shot, and Musgrave wouldn't
have had to wait for-freekin-ever to fly).

--
"All over, people changing their roles,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org