>What impressed me greatly was that, when given the choice of many many
>thousands of pilots who would happily have flown the craft for free, they
>chose a 63 year old as their preferred choice for their first Space
>attempt.
>I've also seen it suggested that the first astronauts to Mars are liable to
>be 50+ years old. For similar reasons I imagine.
>
>         Russell McMahon
And those reasons are...?

Cooler blood, more experience?

I've heard it said that the current generation of astronauts are not of the
same...caliber (maybe?) as the first generation of Mercury/Gemini/Apollo
spacemen.  Particularly WRT the "thinking outside of the box" type of
thing- for example, if the Apollo 13 issue took place today, our astronauts
would NOT be coming back safely.  Are we attempting to tap that
generation's flexibility?  And if so, what do we do when they are not
available?

Mike H.

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