The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff is both a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe, and a 1983 film adapted from the book. They both recount the story of the first seven astronauts selected for the NASA space program, based on interviews and research by Wolfe. The story tells not only of the "Mercury Seven" and their families, but also the contrasting fate of Chuck Yeager, who was considered by many test pilots to be the best of them all, but who was never selected as an astronaut. NASA officials decided to use college-degreed, military pilots for the Mercury program and not pilots such as Yeager who did not have a college degree and gained their commissions as cadets in World War II.

According to its introduction, the book was inspired by the desire to find out why the astronauts willingly put themselves at risk to fly into space. Wolfe recounts the enormous risks that test pilots were already taking, and their belief that the selectivity of reaching the ranks of a test pilot (and thus possessing "the right stuff") gave. Wolfe likens the astronauts to 'single combat champions' from an earlier era, receiving the honor and adoration of their people before going forth to fight on their behalf.

The story is more about the space race than space exploration in general. The Soviet Union's early space efforts are mentioned only as background, focusing entirely on the U.S. Space Program. Emphasis is given to the personal stories of the astronauts and their wives rather than the technical aspects of space travel and the flights themselves. 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). Another option considered were athletes already accustomed to physical stress, such as circus trapeze artists. Wolfe states that President Eisenhower, however, insisted on pilots, even though the first crewmen would not actually fly the spacecraft. When Gus Grissom lands at sea and exits his space capsule, saving the capsule seems more important to the recovery team than saving the pilot because of the value of the data. Another political issue (mentioned in the film, not in the book) concerned the appropriateness of Grissom's names for publicity purposes. Neither his nickname, "Gus", nor his real first name, Virgil, were considered good names for an astronaut; but his second name was Ivan and that was even less appropriate, as it was a common Russian name.

An interesting aspect of the story is that both sides of the space race (US and USSR) used experienced German engineers and rocket scientists. In a particularly humorous moment in the film version, Senator Lyndon Johnson attends a meeting where the politicians are reacting to the news of Sputnik's 1957 launch. Senator Johnson asks "Is it their Soviets German scientists that got them up there first?". At that moment, the "German scientist" (a composite character) responds: "No Senator...our Germans are better than their Germans."

Although a fictional moment, it captures an overall truth. The early U.S. rockets such as the Redstone, which carried Alan Shepard into space, were in fact only slight updates of the German V-2 rockets from the Second World War. The design program was led by Wernher von Braun, Nazi Germany's chief rocket scientist, who had surrendered to U.S. forces in Germany (and had avoided surrendering to Soviet forces). By this time, he was working for the United States.

The later Atlas rockets, such as the one used to put John Glenn into orbit, were of American design. John Glenn almost did not get to fly the third mission because his wife Annie refused to meet with Vice President Lyndon Johnson.

Another test pilot highlighted in the movie is the late Scott Crossfield.

Chuck Yeager spent time with Tom Wolfe explaining accident reports "that Wolfe kept getting all wrong". Publishing insiders say these sessions between Wolfe and Yeager led Wolfe to highlight Yeager's character, presence, thoughts, and anecdotes throughout the book. As an example, Yeager prides his speech to the Society of Test Pilots that the first rider in the Mercury development program would be a monkey, not a real test pilot and Wolfe plays this drama out on the level of angst felt by the Mercury Astronauts over those remarks.

The movie

The movie is 3 hours and 13 minutes long and stars Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Kim Stanley, Levon Helm, Veronica Cartwright, Pamela Reed, Lance Henriksen, and the real Chuck Yeager in a cameo appearance. It features a score by composer Bill Conti.

The screenplay was adapted by Philip Kaufman from the book, with contributions from screenwriter William Goldman. It was directed by Kaufman.

It won Academy Awards for Sound Effects Editing; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Sam Shepard), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Picture.

At the time that the movie came out, former astronaut and Senator John Glenn (D-Ohio) was running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. It was felt that the movie might help his chances, but in fact, his candidacy did not go far. In fact, many said half-seriously, after having seen Sam Shepard's performance, "Forget John Glenn, I want Chuck Yeager for President."

External links

Der Stoff, aus dem die Helden sind | L'Étoffe des héros | The Right Stuff | ライトスタッフ

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The movie

External links