William Pogue, Astronaut Who Once Staged a Strike in Space, Dies at 84
7 replies, posted
[quote]William R. Pogue was the pilot of a record-setting American mission in space, and one of the very few astronauts ever to go on strike — while in orbit — to demand more time for contemplating the universe.
Colonel Pogue, who died on March 3 at 84 at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla., was a member of the three-man crew that flew the longest, and the last, manned mission aboard Skylab, from Nov. 16, 1973, to Feb. 8, 1974.
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He was known for his candor — a Baptist-educated fighter pilot who seemed willing to jettison the heroic image long attached to the first generation of Americans in space in favor of a more regular-guy model. Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr., a former staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of books about American and Soviet space missions, called Colonel Pogue “the earthiest of all the astronauts.”
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A sense of the transcendent side of the experience, at the same time, led him to take part in the first and only outer space “strike,” as he and his fellow crew members later referred to it jokingly.
The request for time off seemed to puzzle ground controllers at Cape Canaveral, Fla. In news briefings they described it as a possible sign of depression or medically caused lethargy in the crew, which also included Edward G. Gibson, a physicist, and Lt. Col. Gerald P. Carr, a Marine and the mission commander.
Colonel Pogue, an Air Force officer, said neither was the case. He and the others just wanted more time to look out the window and think. The flight had made him “much more inclined toward humanistic feeling toward other people, other crewmen,” he told Science News in 1985. “I try to put myself into the human situation, instead of trying to operate like a machine.”
In his 2011 autobiography, “But for the Grace of God,” Colonel Pogue said the tensions between the astronauts and their ground controllers came to a boil about six weeks into the mission. Unable to persuade their supervisors, they decided to stage their job action.
It led to a compromise with controllers, which made the mood during the last six weeks of the flight much more pleasant, he wrote, for “studying the Sun, the Earth below, and ourselves.”
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[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/science/space/william-r-pogue-astronaut-who-flew-longest-skylab-mission-is-dead-at-84.html?_r=0]NYT[/url]
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I'm amazed that we're still graced with the presence of one of the first men to step on the Moon. I feel so lucky to have been around at a time when they're still alive. Every astronaut we lose from the Space Age is a tragedy.
Just think of what could be done if the US took a twentieth of its military budget and out it into NASA.
[QUOTE=Javelin;48700789]Just think of what could be done if the US took a twentieth of its military budget and out it into NASA.[/QUOTE]
Each single billion they get means they can do a lot. I believe their budget is about 15 billion? With that, they host a variety of space probes and other missions. Just imagine if they had five or ten billion more?
I think we could go to Mars right now. The technology is there, just not the funding of political will.
[QUOTE=cqbcat;48700830]Each single billion they get means they can do a lot. I believe their budget is about 15 billion? With that, they host a variety of space probes and other missions. Just imagine if they had five or ten billion more?
I think we could go to Mars right now. The technology is there, just not the funding of political will.[/QUOTE]
It's currently at about eighteen billion, but Congress loves to slash their funding and the future estimates aren't too cheery.
Am I the only one to notice he died in March of last year?
[QUOTE=cqbcat;48700830]Each single billion they get means they can do a lot. I believe their budget is about 15 billion? With that, they host a variety of space probes and other missions. Just imagine if they had five or ten billion more?
I think we could go to Mars right now. The technology is there, just not the funding of political will.[/QUOTE]
While more money isn't always the solution (see US military) i do think NASA could do more with a bigger budget but there is always a diminishing return (see US military)
Skylab, both A quintessentially American space station by being bigger and heavier and wider than anyone in their right mind would launch but a triumph of inventiveness, a practical demonstration of a dry-workshop station concept, and an amazing loss that our space program couldn't maintain it
[editline]17th September 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Orki;48701161]While more money isn't always the solution (see US military) i do think NASA could do more with a bigger budget but there is always a diminishing return (see US military)[/QUOTE]
NASAs budget from the Apollo era put in 10x the return in tech, patents, and industrial gains. Sure the sls is a massive waste of cash because its basically a recycled shuttle, but the commercial crew program has returned American dominance to commercial space launches
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