ASTRONAUT SELECTION - INTRODUCTION June 29, 1965 was the day NASA officially announced the results of the scientist astronaut selection process. Several thousand scientists had applied. NASA culled this number down to four hundred whose applications were sufficiently promising to warrant forwarding to the National Academy of Sciences. The review of the Academy resulted in sixteen promising individuals who came as a group to the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks AFB, San Antonio for final screening. That happened to be my base of assignment at the time. The screening process would take several weeks and included the usual assortment of medical tests, prodding and probing into every nook and cranny, personality and emotional evaluation with all the usual inkblot, Rorschach and MMPI and even intelligence testing with all the latest methods. I carefully looked everyone over as I checked in at the registration desk in the lobby of the administration building, USAF School of Aerospace Medicine. I knew that of the sixteen would be scientist/astronauts assembled in this room only a few would be selected. Most of these men came from academic life, an exception being Joe Kerwin, Navy, the only other physician present and my competition. His pipe set him off from the generally nonsmoking group but I never saw him smoke it. To him it was a symbol of erudition, enabling him to portray thoughtful deliberation. He had made no relevant scientific contributions during his Navy tour but like many of the Navy flight surgeons was also a pilot. This dual rating made him competitive. Of the others, I looked them over very carefully. In my eyes, I was head and shoulders above any of them with the possible exception of Curt Michels, a physicist who also was a pilot. One glance at his eyes told you he was a hotshot – a superior brain. I didn’t need any tests to tell me that. I could see it in a glance. I had the same experience with Carl Sagan at an Exobiology meeting years ago, long before he had established himself. Our eyes locked across the table and I glimpsed his powerful brain. Curt and I would have become good friends if we had any time together but I left for Phoenix for my year of flight training and NASA placed him somewhere waiting for our catch-up. His resignation sort of surprised me but I’ll bet he had strong emotional ties to scientific research and, let’s face it, we never were going to be used as scientists. I knew that we sixteen were the result of an already rigorous, high-level review. To be one of this group was a great achievement but now each of us was hoping to survive the grueling three weeks of testing to come. DUANE GRAVELINE MD MPH
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 21:58:40 +0000
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