The Very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff, that Righteous, Righteous stuff, the Indefinable, Unutterable, Integral Stuff. Colin Greenland reviewed The Right Stuff for Imagine, and stated: "It is the film's willingness to question [...] idealism, while laying down some very fine footage of things that are moving very fast, which makes The Right Stuff thoroughly absorbing for nearly three and a quarter hours." [45] Gemini IV astronauts Ed White (left) and Jim McDivitt stand at Cape Kennedy's Launch Pad 19 on June 1, 1965. (Image credit: NASA) At least some astronauts, however, used "The Right Stuff" as cultural touchstones to discuss milestones in their training. Gerald Carr was selected by NASA in 1966 and flew during the Skylab 4 space station mission in 1973.

The last part of the book slows down some again, but does have it's definite highlights, such as the "astronaut charm school" teaching such indispensable knowledge as what way your thumbs should be pointed, should you ever put your hands on your hips. (Which, as we all know, probably should be avoided altogether). Another great part is the failed Yeager attempt to set a new altitude record for the souped-up version of the F-104 fighter plane.

Select a format:

Like many other wives in Group 20 Jane wanted to talk about the whole situation, the incredible series of fatal accidents, with her husband and the other members of the Group, to find out how they were taking it. But somehow the unwritten protocol forbade discussions of this subject, which was the fear of death. Nor could Jane or any of the rest of them talk, really have a talk, with anyone around the base. You could talk to another wife about being worried. But what good did it do? Who wasn't worried? You were likely to get a look that said: " Why dwell on it?" Jane might have gotten away with divulging the matter of the nightmares. But hallucinations? There was no room in Navy life for any such anomalous tendency as that. Technically accurate, learned, cheeky, risky, touching, tough, compassionate, nostalgic, worshipful, jingoistic . . . The Right Stuff is superb.” — The New York Times Book Review Seven years later, when a reporter and a photographer from Life magazine actually stood near her in her living room and watched her face, while outside, on the lawn, a crowd of television crewmen and newspaper reporters waited for a word, an indication, anything—perhaps a glimpse through a part in a curtain!—waited for some sign of what she felt—when one and all asked with their ravenous eyes and, occasionally, in so many words: "How do you feel?" and "Are you scared?"—America wants to know!—it made Jane want to laugh, but in fact she couldn't even manage a smile. A book about space program is exactly what I normally would get all “Oooh, shiny!” about. It’s the stuff I love dearly and will happily lap up. But this one — despite an interesting promise it kept periodically hitting the false notes, feeling a little too much, too overdone, too weirdly subjective, too reliant on creating excitement out of everything, too gleefully dwelling on the gruesomeness of tragedies, too reliant on verbal lists like the one I just created, plus ellipses and exclamation points.

The movie also provoked strong opinions from some of those who joined the NASA astronaut corps later in the 1960s, during the Gemini and Apollo programs. Those astronauts interacted directly with the real-life people featured in "The Right Stuff," allowing them to think critically about the story's accuracy. Farmer, Jim. "Filming the Right Stuff." Air Classics, Part One: Vol. 19, No. 12, December 1983, Part Two: Vol. 20, No. 1, January 1984. The storyline also involves the political reasons for putting people into space, asserting that the Mercury astronauts were actually a burden to the program and were only sent up for promotional reasons. Reasons for including living beings in spacecraft are barely touched upon, but the first option considered was to use a chimpanzee (and, indeed, chimpanzees were sent up first). I WANTED to like this. I wanted to learn about the men who made this mission, the ones brave enough to leave the planet and try to land on the moon, the ones that clearly had cojones the size of beachballs (that's the "right stuff" - spoiler alert)... but I could not make it past the writing to get there. Granted, the surviving pilots would have had to distance themselves from the understanding that it could be them crashing and burning at any time... so they made light of it, didn't dwell on it, victim blamed that it was pilot error they'd never make, etc. But they were the ones who still had to go up in a plane the next day. Their attitude was understandable to me. Wolfe's was not.

Retailers:

Another fact that had been altered in the film was the statement by Trudy Cooper, who commented that she "wondered how they would've felt if every time their husband went in to make a deal, there was a one-in-four chance he wouldn't come out of that meeting". According to the book, this actually reflected the 23% chance of dying during a 20-year career as a normal pilot. For a test pilot, these odds were higher, at 53%, but were still considerably less than the movie implied. In addition, the movie merely used the fictional Mrs. Cooper as a vehicle for the statement; the real Mrs. Cooper is not known to have said this. [11] The Mercury Seven astronauts were mostly negative about the film. In an early interview, Deke Slayton said that none of the film "was all that accurate, but it was well done." [47] However, in his memoirs, Slayton described the film as being "as bad as the book was good, just a joke". [48] Wally Schirra liked the book a lot, but expressed disappointment and dislike for the movie, and he never forgave the producers for portraying Gus Grissom as a "bungling sort of coward", which was totally untrue. [49] In an interview, Schirra said: "It was the best book on space, but the movie was distorted and warped... All the astronauts hated [the movie]. We called

Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-5631-X. And then there's this: "By 1949 the girls had begun turning up at Pancho's in amazing numbers. They were young, lovely, juicy, frisky—and there were so many of them, at all hours, every day of the week! And they were not prostitutes, despite the accusations made later. They were just… well, just young juicy girls in their twenties with terrific young conformations and sweet cupcakes and loamy loins. They were sometimes described with a broad sweep as "stewardesses," but only a fraction of them really were. No, they were lovely young things who arrived as mysteriously as the sea gulls who sought the squirming shrimp. They were moist labial piping little birds who had somehow learned that at this strange place in the high Mojave lived the hottest young pilots in the world and that this was where things were happening." Wolfe was educated at Washington and Lee Universities and also at Yale, where he received a PhD in American studies. These astronauts who were also fighter pilots didn’t know how this new title and opportunity was going to play out for them. It was a risk that wound up paying off huge because of the patriotism they represented to Americans and the willingness to risk their lives for their country. These men became celebrities as a result of the Space Race with the Soviet Union. People were engaged in what was happening in the country and aware and supportive of the strides that the NASA program was taking. Reading about how invested we were as a nation in these men and their abilities brought me to tears. I want this mindset for our country now. We need something like this that can unite us and help us to grow together and not divide us. These first astronauts and their missions drew the public together in a way that promoted patriotism and love of country.Get An Exclusive First Look at National Geographic’s The Right Stuff at D23 Expo" by D23 Staff, August 12, 2019 There are so many things to say that it’s hard to know where to start. In the simplest terms, The Right Stuff is a masterpiece. It’s the rare title that not only lives up to the hype that surrounds it, but exceeds it. Updated May 15, 2018: RIP, Tom Wolfe... reading this book was such an eye-opener. You were a true original. I'll never forget the pure pleasure I had reading this book, as well as the great satire that was, that is, Bonfire Of The Vanities. Goldman, William. Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade. New York: Vintage Books USA, 2001. ISBN 0-375-70319-5.