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MyCollector t1_isx849h wrote

Reply to comment by megafari in U.S. Astronaut James McDivitt, commander of Apollo 9, dies at age 93 by latchkey_adult

Eagle Scouts. Marathon runners. Champion athletes. The smartest in their math and science classes. Often holding PhDs today or were test pilots in the 60s.

You know how when you create a video game character and spec them out, you can make them intellectual like a wizard but not strong and brawny like a warrior because the game doesn’t give you enough to fill every column up? Astronauts tend to have enough marbles in all the columns.

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TheRealSpez t1_isxutmo wrote

This is a really good analogy.

I don’t know the exact background of most astronauts, but Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin both had specialized degrees related to aerospace engineering and were incredibly gifted fighter pilots. Additionally, Buzz Aldrin got a doctorate from MIT, and Neil Armstrong was accepted to to there for his bachelor’s, but decided to go to Purdue instead.

They didn’t just choose brutes who may have been able to survive, and they didn’t just choose nerds who could kind of understand what was going on. They found freaks of nature that could do it all and were ready to potentially die miserably with little recourse.

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