Craig’s Friday Countdown Astronauts

American Astronauts

10)  Tie – Everyone who isn’t numbered 9 – 1.

9)  Leland Melvin – Because of his official picture, posted this week.  

8)  John Glenn – First American in orbit.  Returns to space on the Discovery at age 77.  Democrats go with Mondale in 1984 instead of him.  Reagan carries 49 states.

7)  Tom Hanks – Brought the crippled Apollo 13 capsule home.  Wait, that was Jim Lovell.

6)  Neil Armstrong – First human on the moon.  Didn’t let it go to his head.

5)  Frank Borman – Commanded Apollo 8, the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket, and led the ship into the first lunar orbit.  Read Genesis and gave us the first Earthrise picture.  A gamer; he never mentioned the diarrhea and regular puking.

4)  Christa McAuliffe – One of seventeen Americans to have been posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.  They’re all courageous, but her status as a teacher sets her apart.

3)  Buzz Aldrin – The spiritual yin to Armstrong’s calculating yang.  At 79, he punched some schmuck who was giving him grief about the moon landings being staged.  He wasn’t charged, and faith in the American justice system was – briefly – restored.  

2)  Gordon Cooper – Cool enough to fall asleep on the launch pad while strapped to 36,000 pounds of alcohol and liquid oxygen.  Had to manually fly the Faith 7 capsule back from orbit and splashed down closer to the recovery ship than any prior Mercury flight.   Who’s the best pilot you ever saw?

1)  Alan Sheppard – First American in space and only Mercury 7 astronaut to walk on the moon, where he took time off to play some golf.   Icily tells Mission Control “Why don’t you fix your little problem and light this candle”.