Whether Carpenter screwed anything up can be debated, but it was an injury that ended his flying career.
I just saw this movie (other than bits and pieces) for the first time last month. Absolutely love it (of course, I’m a big fan of space). Now I know the movie takes big liberties with the facts, but does anyone know if they were seriously considering sending surfers and circus performers into space? That part seemed so incredulous that it completely took me out of the movie.
They weren’t originally supposed to be pilots, just passengers, and maybe acrobats are less likely to puke. And cheaper than highly-trained test pilots. I think Ham had more responsibilities than the astronauts were going to be given.
As the movie points out, there were factions and rivalries within the Mercury 7, though the screenplay limits it to the issue of fooling around with “the cookies.” The book expands on the rivalries, and shows how Scottie Carpenter’s flight was a turning point. When it came Carpenter’s time to fly, he brought with him into the capsule a number of materials to be used for conducting scientific experiments (I’m going on memory here so I can’t elaborate). He spent so much of his flight time tinkering with his gadgets that he failed to stay on course. When it came time to position for re-entry, he nearly used up his entire fuel supply trying to compensate for this. Deke Slayton and Wally Schirra were able to use this as leverage to have Carpenter grounded from future missions. Jolly Wally further nailed this point home by striking anything he considered non-essential from his own flight plan, thereby emphasizing his own relative efficiency and Carpenter’s “lack of focus.”
The first time I saw this movie was when it was in the theaters. I walked out thinking “I thought that movie was supposed to be three hours long.” Then I looked at my watch - it had been over three hours! That movie just sucked me right in and I lost all concept of time.
Sometime soon I plan on showing this movie to my two grandsons who are about 10-11 yrs old and will see how far they make it into the movie before they get bored and start looking for something else to do. (It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it - there’s nothing inappropriate in it for kids that age, is there?)
Well, there’s the scene with Cooper and Glenn in neighboring stalls in the clinic’s bathroom launching sperm samples for science.
But that was our li’l ol’ LBJ. He was a bit of a cartoon, and I don’t recall us minding it that much. Show us your scar? Lift a beagle by its ears? Try to send my big brother to Vietnam? Okay, we objected to that last one. But LBJ was somewhere between a brilliant politician and a bit of a buffoon.
‘I am not a pud-knocker!’
The book said it was Chris Kraft. He couldn’t have gone up again anyway because he suffered a grounding injury riding a motorcycle. Instead he participated in the SEALAB program and spent a few weeks underwater.
Wally Schirra later wrecked his own reputation within NASA during Apollo 7.
As far as Gus Grissom goes, I agree that the book does him no justice, but remember that it was written in a contemporary tone, and what he reported was highly implausible to the engineers and his physiological readings were indicative of panic. I’d say that history has vindicated him, but what was portrayed in the book was very much the sentiment back then.
Wow, I just rewatched this on Netflix this past weekend!
I’m also reading Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz and really loving it.
The space race was something great.
I read that. Good account of the Space Program. I found Kranz’s constant flag-waving a little heavy-handed, though.
Gene Kranz? Chris Kraft? You are getting old when you remember what these guys looked like.
As an Air Force Brat that movie was the soundtrack of my childhood. Yeager lighting the candle on an F-104? My asshole cousin flew them. (shrug) He was a fighter jock, so “asshole” was a given. Stole my name, though. Asshole.
If you want more detail on the space program, I highly recommend the miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”. It’s really good. In particular, the episode that detailed the design and engineering of the LEM was just awesome. But the whole thing is worth watching.
i only came in here to say how insanely jealous i am of you, LA. i think i’d have sold my mother to get to do what you did. and yes, i have a dvd of ‘the right stuff’ and watch it fairly often. i list it in my top ten of favorite movies i watch over and over.
i agree, as does most of indiana where i live now, that grissom was most definitely slandered. these guys were test pilots, folks. nerves of frickin’ stainless steel and that’s what they were hired for.
Using the vernacular, Fucking A. I never questioned Gus Grissom’s courage. Balls of stainless steel, if you’ll pardon me. And yeah, that’s what they were hired for.
And, to be honest, I’m not entirely clear how to separate these guys from the demigods of Greek mythology, except I saw some of them die. They were legendary and, with a couple thousand years, the legends would take over.
I seem to remember reading that Grissom’s heart rate was actually the lowest of the first three Mercury astronauts during this part of the mission. It added to the conflicting facts about the whole incident.
It does seem rather ridiculous to think Grissom panicked. Why? Claustrophobia? Motion sickness? Fear of drowning? These guys were probably the most highly tested individuals on the planet at the time. There’s simply no way he could have suddenly experienced any of those things.
It was a cool line in the film from his wife: “Instead of being Mrs honorable astronaut I’m
Mrs squirming hatch-blower.”
I don’t remember if the F-104 was there in the hangar when I was being a ‘prop that eats’, but the T-33s were. Pretty planes. But has there ever been a more beautiful interceptor than the F-104 Starfighter? Not a great showing in air-to-air combat, and its safety record was abysmal. (The Luftwaffe lost 30% of its Starfighters, and Canada lost 50% of theirs. Spain didn’t lose any, though.) Still, what a Sexy Beast! It was beautiful in the film.
There’s an NF-104 – the one with the rocket in the tail, which is the kind Yeager was supposed to be flying in the film (the film aircraft didn’t have it) – mounted on a pedestal outside of the Test Pilot School.
Funny story: When I was at EAFB, stealth aircraft ‘didn’t exist’. When the NF-104 was removed from the pedestal for refurbishment, some wag put a hand-painted sign in front of the empty pedestal that said ‘STEALTH’. 
(In another example of whimsey, the lake beds would fill with water every Spring. Someone put a black, three- or four-foot shark’s fin made of plywood out there next to Rosamond Blvd.)
Speaking of planes, did you all catch this anachronism? Yeager is getting ready to fly the X-1, and the B-29 carrying it is taxiing out. In the background you can see a T-34A Mentor. The scene took place in 1947, but the T-34 was not produced until 1953. (This is the plane itself, owned by the Edwards AFB Aero Club.)
“No…Jackie?”