Oral History: Rusty Schweickart

This interview with Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart was part of an oral history program at the NASA Johnson Space Center. He was interviewed by Rebecca Wright on March 8, 2000, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

[@l.tallmadge6536]

Great interview, once again, by heroic men. Space flight rules.

[@MarvelousLXVII]

If I was Schweickart, I would have said to Deke: "What are you going to do--ground me?"

[@rc44004]

Wow! More involved than Apollo 13

[@DrTWG]

Very bright guy . Way beyond some of the old boys - who , no doubt didn't like the fact.

[@MarvelousLXVII]

Absolutely correct. He is one of the unsung heroes of the US Space Program but unfortunately, he is only recognized for getting sick in space (like Borman did before him, by the way.)

[@SweetBearCub]

@@MarvelousLXVII Space fans recognize him for other things. For example, he is the only astronaut during the Apollo-era to have unscheduled free time during an EVA to just gaze at the Earth while a broken film canister was replaced.

[@SWalker71]

@@MarvelousLXVII Borman being less than forthcoming didn’t help. Turns out you didn’t want to try and stay still up there but you wanted to move around to get over the initial space sickness

[@maximilliancunningham6091]

Some perhaps, not all. Rusty is extreamly bright, but, most were.

[@DrTWG]

@@SWalker71 That's right - it went on the tape dump I think so ground only found out later. I suppose he had good rep , old Frank . What with the fire investigation & Congressional testimony . Out of Gp 2 - he got a command as a rookie - as did McDivitt & Armstrong iirc . Mind you - so did Elliot See and Slayton said he flew like ' an old woman ' .

[@jshepard152]

10:36 Rusty talks about the old neutral buoyancy tank that used to exist at Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama. Space Camp / MSFC tour folks may remember seeing that tank back in the 70s and 80s.

[@SWalker71]

JSC didn’t want MSFC credited with a solution to the manned mission of saving the Skylab. JSC’s sh-t never stunk according to them