Astronaut Maker
Author: Michael Cassutt
Publisher: Chicago Review Press Incorporated
Date: 2018
Pgs: 460
Dewey: B 629.4092 ABB
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
The manned space programs story passed through George Abbey’s fingers. He stayed an elusive, behind the scenes figure throughout his career. He was dedicated to the advancement and safety of manned spaceflight. This put him at odds with politicians and men dedicated to protecting their fiefdoms instead of doing the right thing regardless of consequence. He’s called the Dark Lord, the Godfather, the UNO for Unidentified NASA Official, and a Space Age Machiavelli. He was all those things and more. This is the story of his life from a Seattle childhood to the Air Force to NASA, the Moon, vicariously, the Shuttle program, disasters, recovery, and finally political expediency and a Henry II-Thomas Beckett relationship with his boss, who failed to understand America’s manned space program and what shuttle cancellation would do to manned American expeditions beyond the atmosphere. Air Force officer, pilot, wannabe astronaut, engineer, bureaucrat, and Director of teh Johnson Space Center, George Abbey was a big piece fo America in space for a lot of years.
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Genre:
History
Biography
Engineering
Transportation
Aerospace
Astronautics
Space Flight
Science
Astronomy
Space Science
Aeronautics
Astrophysics

Why this book:
NASA, space, astronauts...I’m in.
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Favorite Character: George Abbey. Abbey is almost Gumpian when you follow his career track and the people he encounters. The 24/7 nature of his job and drive at NASA, a divorce was probably alway sin George’s future. This is the story of a man who climbed a mountain of red tape and lived there for 30 years. It’s a story of the old boys network. It’s the story of an insider who enjoyed his power in the system and tried to use it for good; community outreach, diversity, etc. Not an abuser of power, but it’s obvious that Abbey enjoyed being involved in manned space flight.

Least Favorite Character: Dan Goldin. Goldin comes across as a person who doesn’t share success and credit easily and accepts blame never.

The Feel:
The book is very behind the scenes, not in the TMZ sense, more the Ken Burns sense. It has a good docu-history feel throughout. While the second half of the book had that “other shoe about to drop” feel to it.

Favorite Scene / Quote:
The last paragraph of the prologue ending with “The story begins on a deserted roadside in Montana staring into a freezing, huge, panoramic, star filled sky watching Sputnik traverse the sky.”

Pacing:
The pace was slow. Luckily the subject matter was interesting.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Truly chased Abbey out of NASA and, then, tried to pigeon hole him out of all NASA ops. George’s move to Bush 1’s Space Council pissed Truly off because, then, NASA admin couldn’t slip stuff passed as easily. Some of this is subtextual but logical.

Hmm Moments:
Wonder if the brusque face-to-face immediate peer review that he was subjected to at Dyna-Soar are both part and parcel of his success and, then, ultimately, as the International Space Station flew his dismissal from NASA. Though on further reading, he was going to be forced out by Goldin at some point.

When you are put in the position of being the boss or management’s blunt instrument, you are in the position of facing future vengeance for your actions and being tossed aside by those who you did that service for.

Is Schirra was so determined to not fly on Apollo 7 that he complained and fought with Mission Control all the way to the Moon and back, I wonder why he flew. He retired after landing and walked away. But his and his crew’s performance led to the dead end assignments which dogged Eisele and Cunningham for the balance of their careers. Neither ever flew in space again. In the shadow of Apollo 1 you’d think that astronaut concerns would have carried much more weight.

Abbey had to know that his partnership with Goldin had a sell by date. If not, the Proton-Zveyda launch at Baikonur should have told him so. Requiring Abbey to sign off on a note guaranteeing the Russian launch’s success, before it launched, even though it was strictly a Russian operation. And there is a huge question of whether Abbey or Goldin could have stopped the launch if they had wanted to. After the Proton Zveyda incident, Goldin actively started distancing from Abbey. Goldiin was worried about Goldin. Abbey was worried about his astronauts and the future of NASA.

WTF Moments:
That was horrible. So many of them wanted the Apollo 1 test cancelled since there were so many last minute changes and since, effectively, it was an unnecessary test since all subsequent flights were going to use the Block II fuselage instead of the Block I. Reading this and knowing what is coming a few pages down the line is horrible. Grissom knew that it was wrong the continual changes and the dangerously slow escape procedure and lead his crew onboard anyway. Good soldier to the end.

After Challenger, Abbey was shoved aside and promoted out of his direct involvement. If he wouldn’t been aware of the o-ring issue, George Abbey would have moved heaven and Earth to stop the launch. Those people were his friends. He chose them to be astronauts. He guided them.

Mistakes are written out of corporate history and repeated by the next generation. The contractors on the ISS repeating mistakes made during Apollo, when many of them were the same companies who had done similar work on the previous project is an example of that.

Meh / PFFT Moments:
The lessons of Apollo 1 seem to be lost over and over at NASA. I fear for the future of manned spaceflight.

Wisdom:
And Columbia arrives at the Cape, the checkout specialist who helped clear vehicles for launch says what everyone knows that Columbia won’t be ready for her original launch window, and he’s transferred by his boss. That sounds like an organization that didn’t learn the lessons of Apollo 1.

The Unexpected:
The description of what happened to Grissom, White, and Chaffee in Apollo 1 was horrid. It was the most detailed version I’ve ever read. I’m going to have to take a break from the book and come back to it later.

Racism and sexism at NASA makes me sad. Two of these men really disappointed me. I’m not naming them. If you read it, you’ll know exactly who I mean.

I don’t recall if I ever knew that 2 techs died during Columbia’s initial preflight testing in a nitrogen purge test on the pad. And while the author notes that Abbey wanted Young and Crippen to acknowledge them during the flight, their names are not mentioned here. That’s wrong. John Bjornstad died on route to the hospital. Forrest Cole died 2 weeks later. They had been cleared to enter without air packs after the nitrogen purge. Three other men lost consciousness before a 6th man discovered them and dragged the victims from the compartment. These were the first, and forgotten, fatalities to strike the space program since Apollo 1. If we don’t count all the T-38 and other aircraft crashes that dogged the crews over the years.
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Last Page Sound:
Goldin played politics with man in space. Abey played human. Goldin was an ass. Abbey deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Author Assessment:
I am going to actively look at other works by Michael Cassutt.

Editorial Assessment:
Well edited.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
really good book,
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