Poll Space Hero

[Ark]

No Pete Conrad? Poll fails...

I have an autographed picture of Lovell on my wall, so I guess he gets my vote.

 

[DanM]

Jim Lovell has to get my vote because he replied to my emails. I've also met Bob Springer, Hoot Gibson and Story Musgrave.

Yuri Gagarin is close in second, because he seemed like just an all around amazing person.

 

[Columbia42]

Sergei Korolev, without him there wouldn't have been a space race. Von Braun is a close second, without him there wouldn't have been an American space program or the V2 tech which Korolev used to start the Russian one. Tsiolkovsky should be on the list too, though.

 

[FADEC]

John Young and Robert Crippen on the US side, Yuri Gagarin on the Russian side, and Siegmund Jaehn on the German side.

John Young because he didn't only fly all US spacecraft except Mercury, but also because a heartbeat of only 70 during a Saturn V launch is quite impressive if you ask me. Robert Crippen because testing a spacecraft manned on its first flight is something. Yuri Gagarin because being the first one to orbit the earth in a remote controlled spacecraft requires balls, especially when you have to leave the capsule before landing. And Siegmund Jaehn for being the first German in space.

But I actually consider all US astronauts heroes who flew before STS 1 (and all Russian cosmonauts who flew until Soyuz flights became something like routine). STS 1 was a true hero mission. Actually the most impressive one. And in my opinion the last one. Everything else past STS-1 actually was nothing special anymore but still exciting.

 

[C3PO]

I'd just like to point out that human space flight and X-Factor have very few things in common.

 

[Arrowstar]

Gene Kranz. Mission control genius.

 

[Cras]

Everything else past STS-1 actually was nothing special anymore but still exciting.

I am going to add something here.

I agree with what you are saying, STS-1 was something special. First time the Space Transportation System ever flew, and it flew with two people on it. So many questions on that flight. Will the tiles hold, the SRBs, if things go wrong, do you really want to use those ejector seats and jump out of the thing. The payload bay doors, will they open and how easy will it be to get them to close again. They flew that thing, and they flew about as perfect as you could have ever hoped for. That landing on STS-1 is still one of the best you will ever see of a shuttle coming home.

But there were some amazing things to follow in the STS program. Mainly the EVAs. The Shuttle era saw the orbital EVA go from going outside and doing small tasks, to spending several hours at a time repairing satillites, building a space station, just amazing stuff. And Bruce McChandless on STS-41B, taking an MMU some 300 plus feet away from the Shuttle, with nothing attaching him to the orbiter. That is still something that give me chills thinking about.

Something could be said for STS-2 being amazing, in that Engle and Truly were the first people to go into space in a USED space craft. The first test to show that Columbia was in fact re-usable.

But STS-1 does stand out from all the rest for me. Apollo 11 of course is close behind, but thinking about it, Apollo 8 had already went to the moon, Apollo 9 already tested the LM, and Apollo 10 did pretty much everything except land on the moon. STS-1, there was nothing before it, the whole mission done for the first time with two men aboard. And they flew it perfectly.

My vote goes for John Young. The first to fly Gemini, flew to the Moon twice, showed how to really drive the lunar rover, and flew the Shuttle twice. Then went on to work for NASA for some 20 more years.

And he saved Columbia from being destroyed on STS-9, when two of the GPC's crashed. If he let the BFS take over the de-orbit, loss of vehicle and crew. The pefect example of an Astronaut.