Apparently, congratulations are in order. Read about it here, and toss back a cold, frothy one in honor of the brit.
posted by Tom 8:36 PM
Monday, February 10, 2003
The Right Stuff
After seeing all the coverage of the Columbia break-up last weekend, I was inspired to watch The Right Stuff again. If you haven't seen it, it's an excellent depiction of America's early manned space program, played by an excellent cast (Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Dennis Quaid, Sam Shepard, Jeff Goldblum, et al), and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in aviation. The movie is pretty well summed up by the lines below.
Word'll get out, major. Maybe not to the press, but pretty soon every fighter-jock, every rocket-ace, every rat-racer in the country'll be here, each one of 'em wanting to push back the outside of the envelope.
A member of the press corps who witnessed Chuch Yeager's historic flight through the sound barrier, upon being told that he could not report the news.
Looks like we're headed for some air bases.
Not just some airbases. If you want test pilots, there's only one place to go. I was there once before, and I hoped I'd never go back. It's a God-forsaken spot on the roof of the high desert in California. Some kind of throw-back of an airfield called Edwards. They've got some kind of mad monk squadron up here...living in rat-shacks;terrible conditions, corrugated tin, bare-bones. And this is the place they hang out in: Poncho's...
You keep saying they. Who's they?
The best test pilots in the world. They've got some kind of a little brotherhood. They keep thinking they've got the right stuff.
Converstation between a couple of low-level government functionaries as they are sent to recruit test pilots to volunteer for the fledgling astronaut program.
Who was the best pilot I ever saw? Well, I tell ya, I seen a lot of 'em, and most of 'em are just pictures on a wall back at some place that doesn't even exist anymore. And, uh, some of 'em are right here in this room, and some of 'em, they're uh, they're still out there somewhere, doin' what they always do: goin' up each day in a hurtling piece of machinery, hides out on the line, hangin' it out over the edge, pushin' back the outside of that envelope and haulin' it back in. But there was one pilot I saw one time who truly had the right stuff. Who was the best pilot I ever saw? You're lookin' at him.
Gordon Cooper to the press before he became the last American to travel into space alone.
posted by Tom 7:28 PM
It starts with the shoe. Maybe the next day it's a t-shirt or a sock. You don't know if the washing machine ate it, or your roommate borrowed it a month ago and forgot that it was yours. All you know is that by the end of the week, you're walking to class naked because you don't have any clothes left.
