I remember reading that NASA's psychological selection/screening process is top secret or something like that, but if you read between the lines and analyze the astronauts themselves, you quickly conclude that yes, if there is fuel and a giant unexplored opportunity nearby, don't get in their way. Not only are they adventurous, but they will push just about any boundary; that is their default setting.

Sometimes there are "interesting" incidents where you get to see this psychology in weaponized form, like the Terminator-esque jilted astronaut lover story from back in 2007. I'm not surprised at all to hear that contingency means might be taken to limit related risks on space missions.

What is the "Terminator-esque jilted astronaut lover story" you're referring to? That doesn't ring a bell but I would love to read more about it!

Isn't that a story that inspired "Lucy In The Sky" movie?

Yea it's about her

Ukulele version: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YrUwqc0sF7U

This would make for a great conspiracy theory, let's say in the alternative world where Apollo 11 had a catastrophic failure and the Apollo program was pushed back by years and eventually cancelled. "NASA did go to the moon in the 60s, but they covered it up!"

> It really illustrates the adventurous attitude and boldness these astronauts.

I remember reading something years ago along the lines that the astronauts they would select for a hypothetical mars mission would be a totally different type than the Apollo astronauts.

The Apollo guys were more the cowboy and daredevil type, where for an 18 month space mission you’d need much more level head types.

Not sure if that was a thing NASA had already planned for, but it always made sense to me.

The astronauts of the early programs were basically all picked from the military test pilot pool. Which was a natural fit given how everything related to spaceflight was new and experimental and ridiculously risky. They needed people who could stare death in the eye and live to tell the story.

These days astronauts routinely spend months in space, and indeed their selection process and education requirements are rather different—as of course is the whole purpose and character of the manned spaceflight program.

It should be said, though, that Neil was selected as the CDR of the first mission to land exactly because he was not a gung-ho type but instead extremely calm, collected, and not one to make a number of himself. Buzz, on the other hand, was and is a much more hot-blooded personality.

Neil also seemed to be a guy who really loved analysing and solving problems - as well as a total love of flying.

Interesting interview with him from 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzOIh2eHqQ

>The Apollo guys were more the cowboy and daredevil type, where for an 18 month space mission you’d need much more level head types.

This was the premise of MARS-500 mission/experiment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARS-500

Wasn't there some story about Chuck Yeager in a Bell X15 on his last flight just saying 'Screw it, what are they gonna do, fire me? I'm going to go to space today.' and taking it up as high as it would go?

I'm not aware of that story, but there is much speculation about why Yeager was never selected for the astronaut corps. His biography (I haven't read it yet, it's second-to-next on my shelf) specifically mentions that Chuck "had the right stuff" which during the Mercury time was code word for "good enough to be an astronaut".

I thought it was explicitly just that he didn't have a college degree? Or is there more to it than that?

In his own words:

JC: Any regrets you were never selected by NASA as an astronaut?

CY: In order to get into the space program, you had to have a degree. I only had a high school education. In the early Mercury program, everything was done from the Cape [Kennedy] anyway. The guys didn’t have a hell of a lot of control, and that to me isn’t flying. I wasn’t interested.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2017/01/23/chuck-yeage...

I'll know as soon as I finish the book!

> Q: Why didn't NASA ever select you to become an astronaut? A: They knew I didn't want to wipe the monkey crap off the seat before I sat down

Edit: https://twitter.com/genchuckyeager/status/918320874947715074...

The X15 was built by North American, and I do not think Yeager flew it. You may be thinking of an ill-conceived idea for Yeager to use one of the NF-104A rocket-boosted Starfighters to set an altitude record. According to this series of articles by the pilot running the NF-104A test program [1], Yeager did not follow the flight profile and consequently ended up in an irrecoverable flat spin from which he had to eject. Yeager could not be blamed, so the author claims he got shafted by the inquiry, with no opportunity to defend himself.

[1] http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_11.html http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_12.html http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_13.html

> What's Houston gunna do about it?

Preventing them from flying another mission, ever, presumably.

Not the same as prematurely landing on the moon, but John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard Gemini 3 [1]. He then proceeded to fly on another Gemini mission, 2 Apollo missions and 2 shuttle missions.

[1] https://www.space.com/39341-john-young-smuggled-corned-beef-...

That would be Apollo 7 which had a near mutiny in space. None of the astronauts on that flight ever flew again. In their defense, they were dealing with motion sickness and a head cold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_7

So far as I can tell, none of the Apollo 11 ever flew another mission, so it may well have been worth it.

(Though the 10 astronauts all did at least one more, with two of the three eventually getting their turn on the moon)

> the 10 astronauts

To other readers: OP is talking about the astronauts of Apollo X, not a quantity of ten astronauts.

A small price to pay to be the first man on the moon.

You just landed on the moon, it's either a mission to Mars next or you just don't care anymore

Any real punishment after successful return would have been politically impossible.

JFK would have called: "Give them written warning and yell at them, Then you bring them to DC. I have to shake their hand and we have to plan for celebration and other stuff."

That's why you turn off the radio, land, take off again, and say something about technical difficulties.

This is more or less exactly the scenario explored in this classic sketch comedy video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj3pJudQi7A

It’s a joke.