Standing at the rim of the Rio Grande gorge near Taos, N. Mex., Apollo 15 Astronauts Jim Irwin and Dave Scott see a landscape remarkably like the one they visited at the Hadley Rille landing site on the Moon. Each astronaut team participated in a series of geology field trips to acquaint them with the kinds of field observation that would be most useful to lunar scientists, the types of rock specimen they should particularly try to sample, and the special problems in working with their equipment on the general terrain they would encounter.

on data provided by the NASA unmanned lunar orbit program were prepared by the Air Force Information and Charting Service and by the U.S. Geological Survey.

As the system matured after Apollo 11, greater emphasis was placed on scientific training and on ensuring that the astronauts were prepared to perform scientific experiments when they arrived on the Moon. Prominent scientists both from within the government and from universities throughout the country offered their time and talent to ensure that the crew and the Operations Team were adequately trained to perform the demanding scientific tasks. During the mission, they also participated as members of the Operations Team. Apollo brought a new aspect to spaceflight as man on the surface of the Moon worked in conjunction with a science team on Earth that capitalized on his observations, judgments, and abilities. They assessed his comments and evaluations, and modified the science planning and objectives in real time. This was not accomplished, however, without moments of frustration and anguish during the early flights, when the acceptability of the spacecraft and its systems was yet to be proved. During the later lunar missions, the crew and the Operations Team were working with proven procedures and a proven spacecraft, and the capabilities of the science organization were effectively integrated in the performance of the missions. As a means of saying thanks, on March 5, 1973, this group of scientists held a dinner for a number of the program and operations personnel they had worked with over the years. The events of that night clearly showed how well this relationship had developed. As late as 1969, there were very few that would have been brave enough to predict such a dinner would have ever occurred.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF FLIGHT SURGEONS

Chuck Berry and Dick Johnston and their medical personnel also played an important role as members of the Operations Team. Working with engineering personnel, they developed the monitoring techniques used to observe the critical medical parameters of man in flight. The flight surgeons' judgment and ability to assess the astronauts' well-being in flight as well as their confidence in the crew's readiness to undertake each of the missions were very necessary to achieving success. In the beginning, there were some who doubted man's capability to even exist, let alone work, in the environment of space. Chuck Berry had no such doubts and worked hard to alleviate such concerns. I do not believe that we could have gotten to the Moon without the contributions of the flight surgeons.

The Apollo Operations Team was a unique group brought together to accomplish a successful landing on the Moon and return to Earth. I do not believe that the dedication and the capabilities of these people have ever previously been duplicated, and I doubt that such a group will ever be brought together again. A great amount of preparation preceded the actual flying of an Apollo mission. The spacecraft had to be designed, built, and tested, but the group that actually flew the mission was faced with an awesome responsibility. President Truman had a sign on his desk in the White House stating that "The buck stops here." This comment could well be applied to the Apollo Operations Team. For these young men and women, the Apollo missions were their finest hour-the truly great adventure of their lives as well as of mine.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Men for the Moon

By ROBERT SHERROD

On

n a June day in 1965, following their spectacular Gemini 4 flight, James McDivitt and Edward White flew up to Washington from Houston with their wives and children. The helicopter bearing them from Andrews Air Force Base, Md., had no sooner settled on the White House lawn than Lady Bird Johnson said she wanted them all to spend the night; babysitters would be provided. The two astronauts heard the President call them "Christopher Columbuses of the twentieth century," and he pronounced the United States now caught up with the Russians.

The two astronauts had a parade. They lunched with Vice President Humphrey and congressional leaders, and in the evening they went to the State Department for a reception. Before a packed assemblage of foreign diplomats they showed a 20-minute movie of their flight, which included the first American walk in space by Ed White.

In strode Lyndon B. Johnson himself, who told McDivitt and White, "I want you to join our delegation in Paris." Furthermore, the President wanted them to go now, as soon as they and their wives could pack. He was seething because the Russians had humbled the Americans at the Paris Air Show, where Yuri Gagarin was standing by his spacecraft, shaking hands with everybody and passing out Vostok pins. The French press noted that the lackluster American pavilion was shunned by the crowds.

Patricia McDivitt and Patricia White wailed in unison, "But we have nothing to wear!" Never mind, said LBJ, Lady Bird and Lynda Bird and Luci have plenty of clothes. The ladies retired to the White House bedrooms, and the two Pats were duly outfitted. Long after midnight the Presidential plane took off, bearing as additional passengers Hubert Humphrey, James Webb, and Charles Mathews, the Gemini program manager.

The astronauts made it only in time for the last day and a half of the eleven-day show, but they gave the Russians some real competition. Wherever they appeared, the American jumeaux de space were followed by masses of Frenchmen. "A partial recovery for the United States" was the Paris newspapers' verdict.

MEN FOR THE MOON 143