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This is a NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project transcript of astronaut James A. McDivitt, interviewed by Doug Ward at Elk Lake, Michigan, on 29 June 1999. McDivitt talks about flying F-86s in Korea, test pilot work at Edwards, and his first class at the Aerospace Research Pilot School. He also covers turning down Dyna-soar, joining NASA in 1962 and learning to be an Apollo Program Manager. He describes the Change Board and says decisions were not second-guessed.
Johnson Space Center Oral History Project James A. McDivitt 29 June 1999 12-24 space-borne part of it with the other guy. So, it was very important. WARD: I’ve heard people say that, in reality, we didn’t have three Programs. We had one. That Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were really all part of the same Program. MCDIVITT: Yeah, I think so. I think they were really. I think when we went to Skylab, that was a different kind of thing. We went to shuttle, that was a different kind of thing. But I think Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo—or Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were—really were one Program. You know, the same guys pretty much flew them. And then when we got to the other things, it was a different concept. And we were—the reason I say they were really in the same Program: they were all exploratory. They were—every flight was an engineering test flight. I mean, there—you were always getting into something that nobody had ever done before. Now as soon as we started Skylab, we—you know, the second flight was pretty much like the first flight. And the shuttle flights, while they do something slightly different, it’s not that much different. WARD: I want to talk to you a little bit about the evolution of the concept of Mission Rules and what they are and what they contribute to a safe and successful spaceflight. MCDIVITT: Well, you couldn’t ad hoc this stuff as you went along, or you shouldn’t because it’s too dangerous. If you don’t have an understanding on the ground and in space of what the other guys are going to do, you don’t have any confidence in them. And we used to really argue those Mission Rules hard and long before flights. And when we finally get to a Rule, that was The Rule. As a matter of fact, as far as I know, the only Mission Rule that I can ever remember
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