Talk:NASA Astronaut Group 2

Unluckiest group?

Can anyone verify the statement that four of the nine died in training accidents? It doesn't seem to match up. - JM

The following text has been deleted, since it is incorrect; of Group 2, only Elliott See died in a training accident. White died in the Apollo 1 fire; Pete Conrad died a few years back following a motorcycle accident. The other six are, at the time of this writing (27.7.05) still alive. I believe the reference is to Astronaut Group 3. In any case, references to "luck" or the lack thereof seem out of place in this type of article. - RandomCritic

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The Next Nine was a notoriously unlucky group, as four of the
nine recruits died in training accidents.

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Thanks for the fix, RandomCritic. - JM

Merge

There has been no comments on whether or not to merge these pages, so unless someone has some objection I will redirect the New Nine article to this one. JM 23:11, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Yes re-direct. I never heard use of the 'New Nine' tag for Group 2 any way.

There is some evidence referenced in A. Smith's 'Moondust' and depicted in the series 'From the Earth to the Moon' that the reason group 2 stands out by comparison to group 1 was that a number of the group had passed on the first NASA call as they did not want to be just 'spam in the can' so arguably this group really was 'the best of the best'.

I have merged the topics, but the format (by which I mean appearance) of the page isn't very easy to read (for me at least). Can anyone suggest a better way to organize the information? -Jokermage 19:25, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Best class opinion?

There is a quote by Michael Collins in his book that this was, in his opinion, the best astronaut class, better than the original 7 or the ones that followed (including his own class, the third picked). Worth including?DrBear (talk) 15:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

For the record, this is now included. Kees08 (Talk) 08:15, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

First to exchange crews?

I removed: "Commander, first mission to dock two manned spacecraft in Earth orbit and exchange crews. " from Jim McDivitt. Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 did it a couple of months earlier. Might could say something else, such as commanded the first mission to test the Lunar Module. Bubba73 (talk), 02:29, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, they were docked, but did an EVA to transfer to the other spacecraft. Apollo 9 was the first to do it without going outside. Perhaps it could be phrased that way?? Bubba73 (talk), 02:36, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Astronaut Chart

The chart linked on this page (and other pages) is the most convoluted thing I've ever seen. A chart should be easy to understand and you shouldn't put every tiny piece of information you can think of in it. It clutters it up and makes people not want to use it at all. The small preview pic will dissuade people from wanting to find out more except as a curiosity: "Why would someone make a chart like this, I've got to check this out". 72.177.54.190 (talk) 05:22, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

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GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:NASA Astronaut Group 2/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Kees08 (talk · contribs) 05:26, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

• I don't really care at all, but what do you think about the first astronaut group article being named Mercury Seven, and the rest are NASA Astronaut Group N? Should this be moved to Next Nine or equivalent? I again don't care, at least wanted to document that it was thought about.

  I think it is fairly regular. While nearly every group has a name, only the Mercury Seven are generally known by it. So it conforms to WP:COMMONNAME. Indeed, they are the only group that is generally known at all, despite the greater fame today of Armstrong and Aldrin. On the one hand, the Mercury Seven were selected only for Project Mercury, and it was known even then that subsequent programs would require more astronauts. On the other, Project Apollo was not authorised until 1961, and there is no evidence of the Mercury astronauts being referred to as the first group until the selection process for the Next Nine got underway. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

• Did some minor improvements like adding ID number templates, and slightly larger edits like this one. Faster than telling you to do it I think.
• I suppose the portraits should have personality rights warnings on them

  Not for US Federal government images. Hawkeye7 (discuss)

  See fourth and fifth bullet points. Astronauts have sued over it in the past. Kees08 (Talk) 17:56, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

  @Hawkeye7: Pinging in case you missed my response. Kees08 (Talk) 07:01, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

  Very well, added, but I don't normally make changes on Commons. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 11:32, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

• Can you upload this higher res version of Stafford?

  Uploaded. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

• Would an image of Sputnik and/or an image of Kennedy giving his famous speech be appropriate for the background section? Seems like we could put something there.

  Added a pic of JFK. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

Image portion of review complete Kees08 (Talk) 22:21, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

• A similar usage of nine is not capitalized the sentence before. Probably should not be capitalized. Seven of the Nine were awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

  De-capped. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:40, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

• Should the first 'the' be there? communicated to the aircraft companies, government agencies and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

  Y Deleted. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Is the word 'absolutely' needed here? A college degree was now absolutely required

  Y Deleted. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Is that not the end of the sentence of the quote? If it is, the period should be within the quotation marks I can't think of anything more important".

  Y Moved. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Comma after the year per Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Commas In all, 253 applications were received by the June 1, 1962 deadline.

  Y Added parenthetical comma. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Comma after Facility Paul Bikle, the director of the NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility declined to recommend Armstrong for astronaut selection because he had misgivings about Armstrong's performance.

  Y Added parenthetical comma. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Flew 'the' X-15? where he flew X-15.

  Y Added. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Maybe change 'he had to eject' to 'ejected' he had to eject from the Lunar

  Y Okay. Hawkeye7 (discuss)

• Should pilot be capitalized? and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin

  Y No idea. Capitalised. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• This sentence is confusing: He was selected for Gemini 3, the first crewed Gemini mission, but its commander, Gus Grissom, replaced him with Young.

  What's the confusion about? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 09:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

  Partially because the astronaut does not get to replace his crewmate, Slayton would. Maybe "He was selected for Gemini 3, the first crewed mission, Gus Grissom, requested a different crewmate due to personality conflicts." Something along those lines maybe? Kees08 (Talk) 18:03, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

  Gus was one of the Mercury Seven. Slayton never really exercised that kind of authority over them. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

  The Borman article indicates that Slayton was the one that made the replacement. Needs fixed either here or there, either Grissom made the replacement or Slayton did. Kees08 (Talk) 23:26, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

  The Borman article says "Slayton therefore replaced Borman with John Young". The sources are ambiguous, and I thought I was ambiguous too. Changed the wording. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 11:32, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

• Think this comma is unnecessary 1952, and became a naval aviator.

  Oxford comma. It's fine. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Think this should be lower case since not being used as a title He was the Command Module Pilot on

  Looking at the Astronaut ranks and positions article, it seems to be our style to capitalize it. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

  It should be changed there to lower case as well. Our style guide trumps source usage and other style guides. NASA's style guide has them capitalized, but we follow our own guide and not theirs. (copying my comment from the Group 3 article, I think this is the last point). Kees08 (Talk) 22:39, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

  @Hawkeye7: Pinging in case you missed this. Also had a question on Congressional Space Medal of Honor below. Kees08 (Talk) 07:26, 8 August 2019 (UTC)

• Could maybe go without this comma? Not sure: In March 1969, he

  Parenthetical comma. It's fine. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Should this be "and received a commission" or "was commissioned" engineering, and a commission

  It's fine. I am emphasising here that midshipmen of the USMMA are commissioned as regular of reserve naval officers on graduation. Otherwise, the linkage between the two is lost. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Comma needed? That year, he joined

  Probably not. Hawkeye7 (discuss)

• Lower case See was chosen as Command Pilot

  As above. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Lower case Stafford was the Commander

  As above. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Remove 'the' or add 'mission' he flew on the Gemini 4 as its pilot

  Y Deleted. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Lower case 1969, he was Command Module Pilot of

  As above. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• To astronauts, or to everyone? Developers in Timber Cove and Nassau Bay offered mortgages with small down payments and low interest rates.

  Y Astronauts only. Added. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• Completely unrelated to the review, but was this before life insurance was a standard benefit? Always wondered why Uncle Sam was not footing the life insurance bill (unless they had that too?) Due to the dangerous nature of an astronaut's job, insurance companies would have charged them unaffordably high premiums.

  Federal Employee Group Life Insurance as an option was introduced in 1954. Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance was established in 1965. See also [1] Hawkeye7 (discuss) 11:32, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

• Would familiarization training or similar wording work? There was also familiarization with the Gemini spacecraft and Titan II and Atlas boosters, and the Agena target vehicle.

  "Familiarization" is correct. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:20, 4 August 2019 (UTC)

• What do you think of adding an image of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, or of an astronaut receiving it, in the last section?
• Sources are reliable
• Hyphen should be an endash (or unspaced emdash, that's what I would do): "The Apollo Spacecraft - A Chronology, Volume II: November 8, 1962 – September 30, 1964"

   Done Hawkeye7 (discuss) 10:46, 6 August 2019 (UTC)

• The Time article says paid access required but I opened it just fine, looked like I was not logged into anything, is the red-lock symbol needed?

  It's in the subscriber-only zone. I go straight through because I am a subscriber. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:22, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

• Citations 14 and 33 should be in References

  That's not my reference style. I only put the books and journals in the references, not newspapers or web sites. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:22, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

• Add date and author to citation 44

  Y Added. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:22, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

• Add date and author to citation 70

  Y Added. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:22, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Should be it for source review Kees08 (Talk) 16:46, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

New Nine picture in the training segment

Someone seems to have replaced the original picture with a picture of 11 middle eastern men. I doubt the astronauts would have included the crossed blades in their time in Nevada. Would someone more knowledgeable about what belongs there please take a look and correct it? Teseractime (talk) 13:50, 17 September 2022 (UTC)