Seeking Fame? Have You Got the Right Stuff?

The Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7
launching John Glenn, the first America
to orbit the earth.

While sifting through notes from an old journal (circa 1984) I came across a few observations that I extrapolated from Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. The book is a compilation of stories about the test pilots who put their lives on the line during those early experiments with rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft.

In The Right Stuff, Wolfe chronicles the grueling process those pilots (and later astronauts) went through. Testing comes first: pushing planes past Mach 1, Mach 2, 2.5, flirting with the sound barrier and beyond, risking death to prove they’ve got the guts and skill. Selection follows—only a few, like Chuck Yeager or the Mercury Seven, make the cut. For the astronauts, assignment comes next: strapped into a capsule, blasted into orbit, riding a controlled explosion into the unknown. The order’s rigid—Testing --> Selection --> Orbit. Each step is necessary to prove you’re worthy of the next.

The other night I watched a documentary about Eric Clapton, focused specifically on the Sixties, the first ten years of his career. While watching, the thought entered my mind that those early years before Clapton became famous were all part of a process that determines who is capable of handling success and fame, and who is not. 

Testing could be the grind—years of work, auditions, failures, bad decisions, or whatever crucible someone endures to stand out. Not all pass; most wash out. Selection is the moment of recognition—picked by the crowd, the industry, or sheer luck. Then orbit: the launch into stardom, confined in a pod, hurtling through a surreal space where normal rules don’t apply. Like test pilots, those chasing fame push barriers—convention, obscurity, self-doubt—hoping to break through. [EdNote: I think here of the "27 Club" that sadly includes Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.]

Wolfe’s pilots didn’t just chase speed; they chased mastery over fear and physics. Fame’s seekers do the same with ambition and exposure. Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 2.5—each milestone ups the stakes, and the “barrier” shifts. But here’s the kicker: in both, you don’t know if you’ve got the right stuff until the test’s over, and even then, the ride’s never fully in your control.

We've often heard it said, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." My observation has been that when we get what we want, we usually get more than we bargained for. 

Related Link 

Magnificent Desolation: Buzz Aldrin's Moonwalk and Its Aftermath

Moonwalk

It's an incredible story -- breathtaking, nail-biting, mind-numbing, mesmerizing, awesome, fascinating, ethereal, unbelievable, stupefying, amazing, astonishing, spectacular and more. And one we have taken so very much for granted. For this reason if for no other, I recommend the book Rocket Men by Craig Nelson.

It's an epic moment in history and when Armstrong and Aldrich begin their descent toward the lunar surface, it's a compelling read. Nelson takes you there.

Most of us are familiar with the story, have at least read something about the "space race" that preoccupied so many Americans in the Sixties. The Russians were first in outer space, so like boys trying to outdo one another the Americans needed to be first to land a man on the moon. They accomplished this feat by a strenuous effort of will that involved billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of highly motivated individuals and the best minds science had to offer. When Neil Armstrong finally placed his feet on that unearthly world, he correctly said, "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

In reading this book there are so many details I'd forgotten about this regarding fantastic voyage, if I ever knew them at all. Here are just a few.

1. When the Eagle (the spacecraft that conveyed Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong to their final destination in the Sea of Tranquility) descended, the ground was covered with boulders so that there was no suitable place to land. The flew horizontally for several minutes seeking a safe place to touch down, but as they did so they were running out of fuel. The landed with only about 17 seconds of fuel left.

2. Our bodies here on earth stay cool by means of sweat. This process only works because of the atmosphere on earth. On the moon, when Armstrong and Aldrin were running about setting up experiments while carrying 170 pound backpacks, they would have overheated had they not have suits that circulated water and kept their body temps normal.

3.Those 170 pound backpacks were bulky, but only weighed one-sixth their weight, so the mass was less massive than it appears.

4. No atmosphere on the moon means the sun looks different in the sky. And the color of the sky is black, by day or night. our earthly sky appears blue because the gases and particles in our atmosphere scatter the sunlight. Blue light waves are shorter than red ones so that as the light is reflected it's the primary color we see during our day.

5. The engineers who designed the Eagle took so many details into consideration, but still did not know what to expect when it landed. How deep was the lunar dust? They expected it to be deeper than it was, so the prong-legs of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) were longer than needed. The bottom rung of the ladder, when Armstrong climbed down, was more than three feet up and not an easy dismount.

6. The author makes clear that everyone who has gone to the moon has been profoundly moved by the look back home at the earth. From the moon, one can completely cover the earth with one's thumb. The smallness of our world in this immense universe was experienced deeply by each of these men.

7. One of the things I've never heard anyone talk about or write about is how complex and challenging basic hygiene was. Specifically urinating and defecating. Reading this section made it clear to me that space travel is definitely not for everyone. Nor does weightlessness and vomiting seem too exciting to me.

8. The colorlessness of the moon was interesting. "I'd never seen so many shades of grey," one of the astronauts said.

9. Another thing that was striking for the astronauts was how soundless it all was. It was also pointed out that the men did not hear their breathing like you hear in Hollywood outer space films. That was added by the studios.

When you read the reviews on Amazon you'll see plenty of criticism because of the quantity of factual errors. Despite this, and many of the critics agree, it's still a good read and a great reminder of what can be accomplished when people work together for a high goal.

Meantime.... Happy Valentines Day. 

Magnificent Desolation

Everyone remembers the name of the first man who walked on the moon. Many remember the second, but it is a smaller number. And most of us recall the first words that Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the moon, said when he stepped down onto the lunar surface that first time. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

But who remembers Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin's first words?

Buzz Aldrin was an unusual man for an astronaut. He was in the third group of astronauts. (The story of the first seven was documented in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff.) Buzz was the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. The others nicknamed him Dr. Rendezvous because his doctoral thesis at M.I.T. had been on "Manned Orbital Rendezvous."

He was unusual for another reason as well. He had a poet's heart. Though driven to be the best in everything he did (in part due to an overbearing father) and though a member of the first mission to the moon and the first moon landing -- the culmination point of all his childhood dreams -- it later left him depressed to have not been selected to walk first on the moon. He felt he'd let his father down, had failed.

But even this wasn't the hardest part of Aldrin's moon experience. In his book Return To Earth Aldrin, records the emotions that overwhelmed him in that first moonwalk. The human soul within him was bursting in response to the astonishing beauty that surrounded him and his own overshadowed and forgotten words were these: “Beautiful view. Magnificent sight out here. Magnificent desolation.’ 

But Aldrin's desire to respond to this stark and awesome new world was squelched by the pressures of the mission. NASA had given these astronauts eight hours of experiments to set up and other responsibilities, with only four hours to accomplish them in. There was no time here for engagement of the scenery. He wanted to stop time, stand in astonishment and embrace the moment, to take it all in. But they were on a mission. They had moon rocks to collect.

Afterwards, when the astronauts returned to earth, the world gave them a heroes' welcome as NASA proceeded to send them on a new mission. As ambassadors for the space program, traveling around the world, they were forced to be cheerful, obedient trained monkeys. People have different temperaments and not everyone is comfortable with these kinds of social responsibilities. The pressures ultimately broke this man who had been privileged to experience the fulfillment of his life's dreams, this historically significant event. In the end Aldrin had a nervous breakdown, brought on by a deep depression, alcoholism and his unresolved inner conflicts.

It's an amazing story with lessons for us all.

* * *

Photo by Ed Newman

Buzz Aldrin: He’s Still Out There

One of the most powerful autobiographies I read two decades ago was Buzz Aldrin's Return To Earth (1973). Aldrin, the second human to put foot on the moon, candidly talks about the dream, the fulfillment of that dream, the pressures he was under at the time, and his regrets, because here he was, standing on the moon, but with eight hours of tests to conduct in four hours he couldn't just take a deep breath and take it in. A man is not a machine or a robot, but has a soul and heart, and fifteen seconds to stand in awe was not enough.

The pressures didn't let up after the return. These guys, Armstrong and Aldrin, and several others that followed in their footsteps, were paraded around the globe as international heroes, an "in your face" statement that we had achieved the impossible and we had done it first. This was Cold War posturing, and like good little foot soldiers Aldrin & company were expected to play the game. The strain of maintaining a happy face while feeling alienated and inwardly confused proved too much for Aldrin, and a nervous breakdown swept him out of the limelight.

The book is candid, and illuminating because of its candor. One of Aldrin's regrets was that he kept his mouth shut while NASA was making certain bad decisions. As result Aldrin, at age 80, has determined to be more vocal about the direction NASA is going as it pursues a second lunar space race.

The August issue of Popular Mechanics carries a feature story by Buzz Aldrin called "A Bolder Mission." Aldrin states emphatically that the current plan is too timid. Our sights need to be set on Mars.

I know many people who question the space program's viability altogether. Other than prestige, warm fuzzies and a few moon rocks, what do we get? Supporters will point to all the technology advances that emerged from the initial space race.

But Aldrin, who even invented a concept called the Mars Cycler that will get us to Mars more efficiently, is adamant that NASA must reconsider its trajectory over the next 25 years. In a CNN piece he states, "What we truly need is not more Cold War-style competition but a destination in space that offers great rewards for the risks to achieve it. I believe that destination must be homesteading Mars, the first human colony on another world.

"By refocusing our space program on Mars for America's future, we can restore the sense of wonder and adventure in space exploration that we knew in the summer of 1969. We won the moon race; now it's time for us to live and work on Mars, first on its moons and then on its surface."

It's obvious that for many, this is their life passion. This makes them very persuasive. But is this where our tax dollars should go? Actually, Aldrin even has an answer for that. If lunar exploration fails to pay for itself with what it discovers there, then it should be scrapped.

In the meantime, what do you think?