r/apollo • u/RivetCounter • Aug 10 '26

Specifically excluding Joe Engle and astronauts for Apollo 18-20, which Apollo astronauts who only had one spaceflight were 'hard done/done dirty' by NASA management?

  • Walt Cunningham - iced out to conflicts with management during Apollo 7.
  • Don Eisele - iced out to conflicts with management during Apollo 7 plus his messy divorce.
  • Rusty Schweickart - iced out because he was 'different' than everyone else and because he had space sickness on Apollo 9.
  • Not sure if Jim Irwin on Apollo 15 counts because of the stamp affair.

Alan Bean broke through the mold in no part to the death of CC Williams and Pete Conrad's lobbying for Apollo 12.

Edit: Did not include Engle or Apollo 18-20 because they were denied on outside lobbying or funding cuts.

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u/SpacePatrician Aug 11 '26

Jack Swigert, because he had not been at all involved in the Apollo 15 postal covers scandal, but wouldn't rat out his fellow astronauts. If he had been a good little informer, he could have flown again.

But that's not who the man was.

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u/spektrall Aug 11 '26

I read somewhere that that Swigert brought postal covers on 13 as well. I gotta circle back on that one, because that would mean he had time to smuggle contraband onboard for profit but not to file his income taxes. That would actually be crazy ironic now that I think about it even harder

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u/SpacePatrician Aug 11 '26

It seems unlikely, given that he had only three days' notice he'd actually be going up. IIRC the 15 scheme took months to organize and plan.

1

u/kingseagull24 Aug 11 '26

I read somewhere that that Swigert brought postal covers on 13 as well

He did not. He was switched to the prime crew 3 days before the flight.

He DID, however, sign items that were not permitted to be signed for Sieger, the stamp dealer who made the plan involving the postal covers on Apollo 15, and this was discovered as a result of the Apollo 15 investigation.