Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 (16 page)

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Authors: Robert Zimmerman

Tags: #History, #United States, #20th Century, #test

BOOK: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8
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Page 77
To have found a congressmen or senator who opposed this position would have been difficult that night. Nonetheless, all were stunned to silence when Kennedy made his next proposal.
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth. No single space project in this period will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long range exploration of space.
Many have forgotten in the ensuing decades that Kennedy did not propose this project merely to prove that America could achieve glorious and bold triumphs. When he made this commitment, Americans were truly frightened by the possibility that the Soviet empire was beginning to outstrip them in technology. Worse, this technology gave the Soviets the ability to launch missiles directly at the United States. Khrushchev's words, "We will bury you!" hung over Congress like a thunderhead. Many, both in and out of Washington, believed that their lives and the future of everything they believed in depended on the success of Kennedy's proposal.
16
Houston
On September 17th, 1961, nine men out of a pool of 253 applicants were chosen to become America's second class of astronauts, joining the original seven. The list included Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad, and John Young, the first, third and ninth men to walk on the moon, as well as Ed White, the first American to walk in space.
Also in that list were Frank Borman and Jim Lovell.
For Lovell, it was a dream come true. When NASA picked the seven Mercury astronauts in 1959, Lovell was among the 110 test pilots screened as possible candidates. For several weeks he endured a series of absurd and painful tests. "The enemas," he remembered. "They did enemas all over the place." The most ridiculous test, however, had the doctors strapping his arm to a table, palm

 

Page 78
up. They took a large needle with an electric wire attached and pierced this through the heel of his hand, just above his wrist. As the doctors gathered around an oscilloscope to watch, they sent a powerful and painful electric charge through the needle, making Lovell's fist involuntarily ball up.
Unfortunately, the oscilloscope wasn't working, so they removed the needle, called in a television repairman to fix it, and then started over. Several times they sent a charge through Lovell's hand, eyeing the meter as if it were the Delphic Oracle. The patient meanwhile was writhing in pain, his hand balling up and opening and balling up and opening.
In the end, Lovell was rejected because he had a slightly high level of bilirubin in his liver. He wasn't sick, it didn't affect his performance, but the doctors needed some criteria to reduce the list. Out he went.
17
When three years later NASA announced a second call for new astronaut applicants, Lovell jumped at the chance. He was then flight instructor at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, teaching pilots how to handle the increasingly complex hardware and weaponry of the modern fighter jet. Though the work was interesting and challenging, it still wasn't rocketry or space exploration. Lovell could only watch from a distance as other military test pilots no more qualified than he flew in space, or tested experimental aircraft like the X-15.
He had made it into the Naval Academy on the second try. Maybe the same thing would happen with NASA. He sent in his application, and was quickly accepted.
Frank Borman meanwhile had decided that being a test pilot was no longer advancing his Air Force career. It was important and exciting work, but he wanted more. He had seen how the Mercury space flights had moved the public and the world. He also sensed that the men who became astronauts had a chance to make history. And like Kennedy, Borman strongly believed that what these astronauts did might very well have a direct influence on the outcome of the Cold War.
When NASA announced its call for new astronaut applicants, Frank asked Susan what she thought. Her answer was unequivocal. "I'll do whatever you think is best for your career." In the twelve years of their marriage, she had endured both cinderblock homes in the burning desert and Quonset huts

 

Page 79
Frank and Susan Borman in the Philippines, 1953. 
Credit: Borman
in the steaming jungle. She had witnessed plane crashes and seen smoke rise from airfields, knowing that any one of those accidents could have claimed her husband.
And she had even risked a plane crash of her own. When Frank had been assigned to the Philippines in 1951, he secured a government house for them to live in, if she could get there by a certain date. Since an ocean voyage would take too long. Susan would have to fly there with three-month-old Fred.
The Bormans, like most young military couples, had very little money. The only thing of value they owned was their car. She sold it for $1,500, which happened to be exactly enough to pay the airfare for herself and Fred.
Owning nothing but her luggage, she and Fred climbed into a Pan Am clipper for the initial part of the journey, a ten hour flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. From there they would fly another ten hours to Guam, followed by another seven hour flight to Manila.
Halfway to Hawaii, with almost five hours to go, Susan glanced out her window and noticed that one engine was smoking badly. After a few minutes the propeller stopped, and the captain appeared to explain to all the

 

Page 80
passengers that though they had lost one engine, the plane still had three left, and would make it to Honolulu.
Thirty minutes later Susan looked outside again and was startled to see a second engine also grind to a halt. The captain appeared a second time. With only two engines left on one wing, it was questionable whether they could stay in the air for another four hours. He warned the twenty or so passengers that they might have to ditch the plane in the Pacific. He and the stewardess began drilling everyone on the exit procedures should they land in the water.
Now everyone's eyes were glued to the engines on the other wing. Soon Susan could see these smoking as well, overheating from the strain.
The crew opened a rear door and began throwing things out to lighten the load. Everything unnecessary was tossed away, from blankets to food to liquor supplies.
Rather than try to reach Honolulu, they aimed for the easternmost Hawaiian city of Hilo. With his last two engines belching fire and smoke, the pilot managed to bring the plane in for a smooth landing. The passengers then made an emergency exit. Fred was strapped to her chest, and Susan was the first to slide down the ramp and into the hands of a crew of airport firemen.
Her airplane troubles weren't over, however. Her next two attempts to leave Hawaii, on replacement Pan Am Clippers, were both forced back because of engine troubles. All told, it took her three more days to get to Manila.
A year and a half later, she gave birth to Ed, her second-born. "It was just like the TV show
M*A*S*H
." She was in one hut when the labor pains began, and they had to wheel her across the camp to the operation room, with expectant father Frank trailing alongside.
And yet, Susan wouldn't have traded these tribulations for the world. She and Frank loved each other and had two growing children what matter they were poor and sometimes endured risk? They were a family and would fight it out, together.
Now Frank wanted to become an astronaut. Susan figured that it couldn't be much different from being a test pilot, with immeasurably better possibilities for success. She was with Frank all the way.

 

Page 81
The Bormans arrived in Houston in the late fall of 1962, checking into the Rice Hotel as per orders. The Manned Spacecraft Center was being built in a swampy empty field forty miles south of the city at Clear Lake, and until the astronauts built their own homes, they would live in Houston and commute.
The men went off to the Manned Spacecraft Center to build rockets, fly simulators, and learn everything they could about the space capsules that would send them into space. The hours were brutal, the work was intense and never-ending, and the challenge exhilarating.
The women were left with the job of building a community in the empty farm fields near Clear Lake. The Bormans hadn't even completely unpacked when Frank told Susan that it was up to her to find some land near the Space Center and have a house built. Then he left for Florida, as ordered, to witness the launch of Wally Schirra in the fifth Mercury space flight.
"I had been a pampered and innocent child," she remembers. They had always lived in government housing, had never even rented an apartment. Now she had to create a home from scratch, on her own, on an astronaut's salary of about ten thousand dollars per year. It was exciting, and frightening.
She and Faye Stafford, wife of astronaut Tom Stafford, teamed up and drove down to Clear Lake together. Nothing was there, neither homes nor schools nor shopping centers. "All we saw were cows and fields." They found a real estate agent, purchased some land, and started construction. A dam was built and the swamp drained, and on the shores of this newly created lake the development of El Lago was born.
Meanwhile, Marilyn Lovell was commuting back and forth from Virginia Beach to Houston, selling a home at one place while supervising construction of a new one at the other. The Houston house would be on the north shore of the same lake, in a small development called Timber Cove.
Like Susan, she had backed her husband all the way when he decided to become an astronaut. Marilyn knew that she could have done little to change his mind. Nor did she wish to. She remembered how, when they both were teenagers, he would take her up to the rooftop of his apartment building and show her the constellations and stars. His eyes would shine as he gazed at the stars and talked of going there.

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