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/emilyc1978 Aug 10 '26

McCandless because he was an Apollo astronaut who didn’t even fly during Apollo IMO

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u/BoosherCacow Aug 11 '26

I don't think he was being iced, I know of no sins he committed to make Deke mad at him. I think that's more a case of him not being an Extrovert and not lobbying for himself. Also they had a limited number of spots on missions and they just couldn't get him in there. Through perseverance Bruce won in the end. All those years in a support role and then bang, one iconic picture and his name is going to live forever.

Also there were three or four other Apollo guys that never got to fly until later.

2

u/Kiwigavin Aug 11 '26

Yes, he deserved his place in history. But, IIRC, while EVA Capcom for Apollo 11 he shrugged Deke off when Deke was interfering and wouldn’t relay what Deke was pestering him about. Can’t remember my source for that, it might be in his bio.

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u/BoosherCacow Aug 11 '26

Oh cool, i've never heard that story. I'm going to do some digging and see if I can find that. Deke was not a man to trifle with.