Who's your favorite astro/cosmo/taikonaut?

bolbuyk · 2004-05-13 08:10:42

(Cindy, your comments about Lovell inspired me to do this poll.)

My favorite is Neil Armstrong, not so because of Apollo 11, but more of Gemini 8. His very cool and right way of acting: That's the real one.

I just can vote one, but Polyakov would be the other, 438 days in space and walking away immediately when down on Earth.

Palomar · 2004-05-13 08:28:08

(Cindy, your comments about Lovell inspired me to do this poll.)
My favorite is Neil Armstrong, not so because of Apollo 11, but more of Gemini 8. His very cool and right way of acting: That's the real one.
I just can vote one, but Polyakov would be the other, 438 days in space and walking away immediately when down on Earth.

*Me? Talk about James Lovell??

I really admire this man. All of his accomplishments, especially Gemini and Apollo. He (and the other Apollo 13 astronauts) really kept a cool head, their composure and poise in spite of all the hardships and perils of Apollo 13.

I'm especially impressed by Lovell's exuberance. Like that http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GP … 6.jpg]seen in this pic with Buzz Aldrin.. Cap off and in the air, happy and celebratory; I've seen (in his book _Lost Moon_; I can't find it on Google, unfortunately) an Apollo 8 crew pic with Lovell positively *beaming* at the camera, hands spread out in a manner which says "Look at the extraordinary things we are doing!" Demonstrative and enthusiastic in a very classy way; all of his pics show a man very devoted to what he's doing and thoroughly enjoying it.

And he and his wife Marilyn have been together all of these decades. Wow...over 50 years of marriage. Congratulations to them.

Yep, he's my fave. And did I mention I think he's the most gorgeous, astronautalicious heartthrob ever? :laugh:

--Cindy

Rxke · 2004-05-13 10:55:03

Leonov. I like him a lot. Has a lot of 'the Right Stuff.'

And then of course a lot of others like Foale, the ISS 1 crew (all of them, read Shepards diaries, they had a hard time...) 'Rusty' Schweikard(sp?) Armstrong (also because of Gemini 8) ....

And of course 'our' Belgian Frank De Winne, soft spoken, shy looking, but impressed the hell out of the Russians AND Americans on ISS. Test pilot, First non-Russian that flew in a new spacecraft (uprated Soyuz) as engineer, not glorified payload. The Russians said they want him on a long mission. That's a very big thumbs-up...

bolbuyk · 2004-05-15 06:05:10

Rxke: Eplain: Why Rusty? I don't know much about him.

Ok, Leonov is a nice guy, I think. After the communism very open about the 'lost moon' and his fears walking outside Woshod.

Cindy: I recognize about what you say about Lovells devotednes to space. He has a very serious way of doing things, thats my impression. BTW he was Neil's CapCom in Gemini 8. He was called "The man with the golden fingers." because he worked properly and fast.

With Buzz, Gemini 12. It was the best of all Gemini's, the only one with really no troubles after Gemini 7. Buzz was the first astronaut that dived in a swimming pool to experience his space-walk. So he was less tired than White, Cernan, Collins and Gordon. He invented little things to climb the gemini in an easy manner!

Josh Cryer · 2004-05-15 09:46:39

Has to be Neil Armstrong, for me, but really, the whole Apollo 11+ crews are major inspirations to me, I wish I know all their names, I would list them. I encourage all of you to watch the Apollo Journal movies, they really exhibit the spirit of human exploration. Yes, they knew they were there for nationalist / political reasons, but when they got there, they tried to perform their scientific duties, and that is really what compelled them to go as far as they did. Really, when you're on the moon, what else is there to talk about but the science? But the beauty?

The Hubble guys were really awesome, too. We had NASA TV when that occured, and I watched the whole thing, live. Sure, it was boring at times, but it was still really awesome.

I guess I have to say I don't really have one favorite astronaut.

Rxke · 2004-05-15 09:52:59

Rusty for his enhousiasm, he was acting more like a young puppy, than a 'cool astronaut'
BUT he was a top-notch professional, too.

Josh Cryer · 2004-05-15 17:50:31

Apollo 13 is on tonight...

Probably one of the best space shows ever made.

Mundaka · 2004-05-16 22:27:46

Rxke · 2004-05-17 00:43:26

Yup, you can even find video of that 'interaction' online, the jerk had it rigged to have it filmed... What an CENSORED!

He had the guts of saying 'Buzz was a coward...

bolbuyk · 2004-05-17 06:53:40

Rusty for his enhousiasm, he was acting more like a young puppy, than a 'cool astronaut'
BUT he was a top-notch professional, too.

What I knew he was called a 'partynaut'. Beside that, he had quite left political opinions, which were uncommon among astronauts. That's fascinating.

O yeah, another hero to me is Virgil (Gus) Grissom. He nearly drowned when his Liberty-Bell 7 sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. Fortunately he was saved. Later he lost his life in Apollo-1. You immediately recognize hem from a photo of the first 7, because he is rather small.

Fra Mauro · 2004-05-17 11:40:36

While I really admire Jim Lovell, my favorite astronaur is Gene Cernan. I have met him several times and he is a wonderful
advocate of the space program. As commnader of Apollo 17, he directed the mission's success and helped to prevent a funeral atmosphere regard our last trip to the Moon.

Rxke · 2004-05-17 12:12:02

'bout Gus... There's still discussion he panicked and hit the 'emergency' buttons that blew out his hatch. He was sure he didn't but engineers couldn't believe it was a hardware error.

I tend to believe his side of the story, after all, he was a test-pilot, not the kind that panics easily...

Mundaka · 2004-05-17 21:15:31

Palomar · 2004-05-17 21:53:03

*Cindy: astronautalicious? Women think those glorified projectiles are...are...astronautalicious!? I knew I should have been an astronaut!

*Well...Saturn V was the cat's pajamas too. But I wasn't referring to rocketry.

I was referring to James Lovell(able).

How about this: Astrostudmuffinalicious?

Astronauts beat rock 'n roll stars -any day-, in my books.

--Cindy

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