Interested In The Arts

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30886, 20 October 1965, Page 16

Interested In The Arts

“It is the most luxurious comfort you can experience”—that’s weightlessness as described by astronaut Walter M. Schirra. “It’s like floating in a warm salt solution.”

Three years ago, Schirra had nine “luxurious” hours of orbital flight in the Sigma VII spacecraft. It was not all comfortable, however, for his space suit overheated and he worked for more than an hour at adjusting its cooling system.

Apart from the overheating, Schirra’s flight was the most nearly perfect of the United States Project Mercury series. Now he is prepared to enter space again, as the command pilot of the Gemini VI spacecraft Together with his copilot, Thomas P. Stafford, he will attempt the first rendezvous and docking maneouvre with a previously-launched spacecraft.

“Rendezvous is one of the most exciting technical missions,” Schirra said recently. “It represents a great advance toward manned space stations, the ultimate aim of earth orbital flights.” At 42, Schirra is the oldest of the active astronauts. And of this group of technically skilled space pioneers, he may well be the most sensitive and artistic. MUSIC LOVER

Music has always been part of his life. As a boy he studied the'trumpet for 10 years, giving it up because he felt that he could not bring to the instrument the level of excellence that justified continued lessons. But his appreciation remains strong. Schirra wants his children,

15-year-old Walter 111 and seven-year-old Suzanne, to enjoy the beauties and lighter side of life. He feels that technical competence should come later.

As a Navy commander, Schirra volunteered for Project Mercury out of a conviction that “the time has come for new things.” At that time, he envisioned two goals for the United States manned space flight programme: to orbit and return to earth, and to land on the moon and return to earth.

The first goal has been achieved many times over. And the second? He feels that at age 45 or 46 he could still be the first man on the moon.

While none of the astronauts are overwhelmed by the “glamour” of being a spaceman, there is no denying the powerful desire to be the first human to set foot on the moon. That man will be chosen by the earthbound project director on the basis of his special technical and scientific competences. FAMILY TRADITION Schirra’s interest in flying, like his delight in music, is a family tradition. His father, a civil engineer, was one of America’s early aviators. After World War I. the Schirras, mother and father, engaged in exhibition flying. From the time he was graduated from the United States Naval Academy, Schirra be-

came involved in flight As he has said: “I kept striving for better aircraft to fly. . . . I managed to get into jet aviation as early as I could, which was about the beginning of it, in the Navy, at least." After flying 90 missions in Korea he took part in the early development of the Sidewinder anti-aircraft missile. Later he attended the Navy test pilot school at Patuxent River, Maryland. He had logged more than 3000 hours of flying time, 2000 of them in jets, and was testing advanced Navy jet fighters when he was selected by the United States Space Agency in April, 1959, as one of the original seven astronauts. Schirra and his Gemini VI co-pilot, Stafford, have worked closely together for about a year, first as the back-up crew for the Gemini IV flight. Schirra says the astronauts operate like teams of fighter pilots. They come to know each other intimately, and one knows what to expect of the other. OUTSPOKEN

The sandy-haired astronaut is generally easy-going and pleasant This does not stop him from being outspoken, having publicly complained about the over-emphasis of science and technology to detriment of the arts. Why Schirra feels this way may

be understood by a little story he recently told. While on a geological field trip with the other astronauts, he saw a flower growing out of the side of a cliff. He hung over the edge, very nearly pitching headlong down the sheer wall, and photographed th? beautiful bit of nature. The picture hangs in a professional photolaboratory in his home town of Houston, Texas. To Schirra, a beautiful flower receives the same devotion as a pioneering trip into space.