WEBVTT

00:00:14.752 --> 00:00:17.834
Normally astronaut training takes about one full year,

00:00:17.834 --> 00:00:20.023
and it includes such subjects as

00:00:20.023 --> 00:00:21.005
astronomy,

00:00:21.005 --> 00:00:21.992
astrophysics,

00:00:21.992 --> 00:00:23.298
flight physiology,

00:00:23.298 --> 00:00:24.968
orbital trajectories,

00:00:24.968 --> 00:00:26.487
or orbital management.

00:00:26.487 --> 00:00:30.764
Another part of the astronaut basic training is survival training.

00:00:30.764 --> 00:00:31.855
In the days of Gemini,

00:00:31.855 --> 00:00:34.769
you never knew for sure where a spacecraft might land

00:00:34.769 --> 00:00:37.439
if there was an emergency, deorbit.

00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:40.159
So, we had to take desert training,

00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:41.149
water training,

00:00:41.149 --> 00:00:44.195
and jungle survival training.

00:00:44.195 --> 00:00:46.080
So, we had to learn how to cook and eat snake

00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:48.366
and all other, such other good things as that,

00:00:48.366 --> 00:00:50.244
and how to make water in a desert.

00:00:50.244 --> 00:00:52.952
After that year and a half of astronaut basic training,

00:00:52.952 --> 00:00:54.664
our names were all put on a list

00:00:54.664 --> 00:00:57.333
and that list was quite a bit longer at that time

00:00:57.333 --> 00:00:58.658
then there were seats available.

00:00:58.658 --> 00:01:01.378
And so, we were all given other duties

00:01:01.378 --> 00:01:03.589
to keep us occupied

00:01:03.589 --> 00:01:06.264
and to help continue our training.

00:01:06.264 --> 00:01:08.843
Five of us were assigned to the lunar module,

00:01:08.843 --> 00:01:13.188
and our job was to be with these lunar modules

00:01:13.188 --> 00:01:15.184
as they were being built.

00:01:15.184 --> 00:01:17.059
So, we spent a lot of time there.

00:01:17.059 --> 00:01:19.852
I must admit that probably I had more time

00:01:19.852 --> 00:01:22.293
sleeping on the floor of Lunar Module #6

00:01:22.293 --> 00:01:24.631
than the crew who flew it on the moon.

00:01:24.631 --> 00:01:28.532
Well, my next job was to be on the support crew of Apollo 8,

00:01:28.532 --> 00:01:31.249
and Apollo 8 was the spacecraft that flew to the moon

00:01:31.249 --> 00:01:33.458
and came back but did not land.

00:01:33.458 --> 00:01:35.205
When they went behind the moon,

00:01:35.205 --> 00:01:37.289
they were supposed to do a thrusting maneuver

00:01:37.289 --> 00:01:38.134
to slow them down

00:01:38.134 --> 00:01:40.792
so they would be captured into lunar orbit.

00:01:40.792 --> 00:01:42.795
So we just had to sit and cool our heels

00:01:42.795 --> 00:01:44.504
when they went behind the moon,

00:01:44.504 --> 00:01:47.839
and we knew if they came out a little early on the other side,

00:01:47.839 --> 00:01:51.268
that they had not burned enough,

00:01:51.268 --> 00:01:52.352
not slowed down enough,

00:01:52.352 --> 00:01:54.182
and were going to skip out into space,

00:01:54.182 --> 00:01:55.806
they wouldn't be captured in orbit.

00:01:55.806 --> 00:01:57.852
If they came out a little bit late,

00:01:57.852 --> 00:01:59.521
it meant they had over-done it,

00:01:59.521 --> 00:02:00.898
and they weren't going to be in orbit,

00:02:00.898 --> 00:02:04.858
but were going to begin a spiral down to the lunar surface.

00:02:04.858 --> 00:02:07.081
And, of course, without a lunar module,

00:02:07.081 --> 00:02:09.452
that kind of ruins your whole day.

00:02:09.452 --> 00:02:11.160
You can imagine how relieved we were

00:02:11.160 --> 00:02:13.534
at the instant that they were supposed

00:02:13.534 --> 00:02:15.900
to appear on the other side of the moon

00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:17.242
that they appeared!

00:02:17.242 --> 00:02:20.832
My next assignment was again a support crew assignment on Apollo 12,

00:02:20.832 --> 00:02:23.335
and Apollo 12 was struck by lightning

00:02:23.335 --> 00:02:25.126
on its way off the pad.

00:02:25.126 --> 00:02:26.293
A nearby thunderstorm,

00:02:26.293 --> 00:02:28.173
there was a lightning bolt that went over

00:02:28.173 --> 00:02:30.594
and hit the very tip of the spacecraft.

00:02:30.594 --> 00:02:33.263
The charge went down through the spacecraft,

00:02:33.263 --> 00:02:34.318
through the booster,

00:02:34.318 --> 00:02:35.895
down the exhaust gases,

00:02:35.895 --> 00:02:38.774
and grounded out on the launching pad.

00:02:38.774 --> 00:02:41.349
It killed the electrical power system

00:02:41.349 --> 00:02:44.023
and the computers all died.

00:02:44.023 --> 00:02:45.500
You can imagine what it must have been like

00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.450
for them inside because suddenly the lights all went out

00:02:48.450 --> 00:02:49.464
and then they came back on

00:02:49.464 --> 00:02:51.343
when the batteries picked up the load.

00:02:51.343 --> 00:02:53.699
And, every single warning light and caution light

00:02:53.699 --> 00:02:56.044
in the spacecraft was on and flashing,

00:02:56.044 --> 00:02:58.871
and all the necessary bells, whistles, and buzzards

00:02:58.871 --> 00:03:00.396
and things that are in there,

00:03:00.396 --> 00:03:02.422
all were going off at the same time.

00:03:02.422 --> 00:03:03.877
The crew was totally confused

00:03:03.877 --> 00:03:05.419
as to what was going on.

00:03:05.419 --> 00:03:06.671
When we were settled in orbit,

00:03:06.671 --> 00:03:10.172
we tested all the various systems

00:03:10.172 --> 00:03:11.550
and everything looked good.

00:03:11.550 --> 00:03:13.299
So, that, now I figured this is it,

00:03:13.299 --> 00:03:15.763
and sure enough, I did get an assignment,

00:03:15.763 --> 00:03:16.729
a flight assignment.

00:03:16.729 --> 00:03:20.436
I was assigned to the back-up crew of Apollo 16,

00:03:20.436 --> 00:03:23.991
which meant that I was to be on the param crew of Apollo 19.

00:03:23.991 --> 00:03:26.530
And, several weeks into the training,

00:03:26.530 --> 00:03:27.996
NASA made the surprise announcment

00:03:27.996 --> 00:03:31.946
that they were going to cancel Apollos 18, 19, and 20.

00:03:31.946 --> 00:03:33.281
We were in the middle of the Vietnam War,

00:03:33.281 --> 00:03:34.991
the budget was in bad shape,

00:03:34.991 --> 00:03:36.950
so you can imagine there were three

00:03:36.950 --> 00:03:40.245
very, very sad hangdog guys moping around the office

00:03:40.245 --> 00:03:42.895
because we lost our flight to the moon.

00:03:42.895 --> 00:03:47.544
But, several weeks later, I got a call from Tom Stafford,

00:03:47.544 --> 00:03:49.878
the Senior Astronaut at that time,

00:03:49.878 --> 00:03:52.383
and he wanted me in his office,

00:03:52.383 --> 00:03:52.921
and I went in,

00:03:52.921 --> 00:03:54.533
and he told me that he was sorry

00:03:54.533 --> 00:03:57.012
that I had missed my opportunity for the moon,

00:03:57.012 --> 00:03:59.556
but he said, "I've got another assignment for you."

00:03:59.556 --> 00:04:01.814
He said, "I want you to be the commander

00:04:01.814 --> 00:04:05.999
of the third and final Skylab mission."

00:04:05.999 --> 00:04:08.365
And, he said, "Do you think you could do the job?"

00:04:08.365 --> 00:04:09.861
And I said, "Of course, yes!"

00:04:09.861 --> 00:04:10.789
And, I'll have to admit,

00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:15.365
a certain lump in my chest and in my stomach,

00:04:15.365 --> 00:04:16.406
because I was a rookie,

00:04:16.406 --> 00:04:19.734
and they normally don't assign a rookie to be a commander,

00:04:19.734 --> 00:04:22.454
usually you have to have at least one flight under your belt,

00:04:22.454 --> 00:04:24.296
but they assigned me to that,

00:04:24.296 --> 00:04:26.043
which was really kind of a shock

00:04:26.043 --> 00:04:32.888
because the last rookie commander was Neil Armstrong on Gemini 8.