This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas .ike All Astronautshttp://dolearchives.ku.edu Kansan Dreams·, of Being By KAREN LAMBERT "second back-up" to the com- 11edi~ The space suit was missing, mand crew which will actual- .sto1 but the easy charm, disciplined . Jy make the Apollo flight, he wor mind and good looks that seem ei:plained. • H to mark all U.S. astronauts was WO\ "We're sort of responsible for . evident in Lt. Ondr. Ronald spa all the odd jobs," he said. That Evans as he relaxed in Salina resi includes preliminacy and final Saturday. E systems testing and "all the Just back from one of the few , sas things the prime and alternate . rounds of golf he has time to gre crews don't have time to do." play each year, Cmdr. Evans ' He He was on the support crew in talked candidly about ·an astro- KU January when three American naut's life, his dreams, and the 11tt1 astronauts - Virgil Grissom, U.S. space program. .. Pei Edward White and Roger B. 'I He and his wife, Janet, are Chaffee - died when a still un· am visiting Mrs. Evan's parents, explained fire swept through the Mr. and Mrs. Harry Pollom, 917 spacecraft. ear Millwood drive. ete Evans refers to the first joil Evans, 33, a native· of St. American space program trag- • Fra!llcis, was named an astro- edy as "the incident," and does l na1 naut in April, 196(i, along with not like to dwell on it. wa another Kansan, Capt. Joe En- But he tried to explain why is gle, Chapman. He is a member the astronauts are more deter- do of the astronaut support crew mined than ever to boost the. get for the manned Appolo project Apollo program . . Kansas Astronaut - the program to land a man "Most of us who were direct- the moon. Lt. Cmdr. Ronald Evans and wife, Janet. on ly involved are military men (Journal Photo) The support team Is the and realize there will be tr ag- Page 1 of 3 ------·------This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas Fi,rSt Man http://dolearchives.ku.eduon the MoOri edies," he said. "You don't just Hle'd like to be the first man technology we have developed of a war, you find that almost stop and cry. You continue to on the moon, but concedes that just •trying to get there are going all of the money comes right work and make it better." "so would everyone else." He to be the real advantages." back into the economy." He PTOmised that the U.S. said there are about 20 active Two products Americans al- He said that 60 percent of all would also have "a much better astronauts ahead of him whom ready enjoy as. a result of space war costs "are thrown away iJt spacecraft and program as a he feels are more likely to be research are highly durable things like bombs and am- result." selected. paints and . bottled draft beer, munition. But 90 percent of the Evans graduated from Kan- Before the first manned Apol- he said. space funds come back into the sas university in 1965 with a de- lo flight, which Evans said These and other goods are de- economy, so evecy:one benefits." gree in electrical engineering. would be in early 1968, will veloped by private companies He entered the Navy from the come launching of what the as- who can get technological infor- To Ev8J11, critics aren't KU Navy ROTC program and tronau.ts h a v e dubbed "Big mation for the asking and put it justified who contend too attended Navy flight school in Mother." That is the moon rock- to their own use. much is spent on the apace Pensacola, Fla. et, Saturn 5, which will be fired program when there are so The The former jet fighter pilot this fall. benefit to all Amer- many µnsolved domestic problems. and Vietnam combat veteran Until the astronauts have con- icans is ,only one reasO'n earned a master's degree in quered the lunar territory, why Evans · is surp that "Our nation has decided we electrical· engineering after he Evans said, scientists won't "there will always be a are going to attempt this pro- joined the Navy. know what to do with it. sp·ace program." ject," he said, that should be He dreamed of being an astro- "It cou~d be a cmnmunica- reason enough Its ties to civilian industry naut for seven years ·before he tions station. We might find rich Evans said he was not the and the millions of oollars al- was chosen. Being an astronaut mineral resources there. man who could say which located in government spending is "a realization that I oould country is ahead in the U.S.· have made it one o'f the vital do something to help the nation Who Cares? Soviet Union "space race" and factors in the American econ- get to the moon." · he doesn't agree that it ''But I feel it really omy, he explained. is a doesn't contest. The glory that he admits make any difference what might "Of .cuurse it costs a great is involved is "only a by- te up. there," he said. "The fact deal," he addtect; '1M "WMn ,' Page 2 of 3 produd." that we are going to go and the you comparelt 'lia'W.'"u!.r. This document is from the collections at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas http://dolearchives.ku.edu

Continued from Page 1' · IThe capsule's cabin will give . them the protection they -need. Russians are doing. some people He said ' the disrobed W>tro- want · to call this a race. But nauts would wear "long johns" you can be sure that we are not and also would have "in-flight going to sacrifice some item of overalls" to wear for the space safety to beat the Russians to cameras. · the moon. We are not going Space dreams that are today ·until we are ready." the property of science fiction ' '; What aboot the equipment writers are in the realm of which seems s'o strange to earth- future possibility. ·boond Americans - space suits, "It's g~in<:: to be a long time food and physical weightless- before we have a mass exodus ness? to The moon, and it's really Evans, who has trained in science fiction to imagine that 'simufators at the manned spare- someday it will be a tourist craft center in l!ouston, Tex. spot," he said; "But when you and at Cape Kennedy, Fla., said rationalize what has happened ·the". astronauts get used to it. · just in the past 20 years, it isn't ''Most of the time, we'r!? too impossible." · busy to .~otice." .. '' . Conquering space '' is a He said a space suit "isn't natura'I .part of man's dest- really uncomfox:table. it's iny, Evans believes. "We ' 'pfetty well , ... ~ne•il, ~·~ are ·meant to get up~'Ul~~e '1''though it doei: 'take some and see what's theref 11ee 1 If · '• force to move around in it." we can use it or improve\ it." "'. Space food is "really1 quite But it isn't something/ man palatable." He said there are will do. by himself.· . so many varieties that even: a "Tlle're isn't an astronaut in .gou["met .could choose a menu the.1 program who doesn't believe · to suit his tastes. in God," he said quietly. He :.· Weightlessness, or zero G, is paused to grope .for words of 1 hard to describe, "except that explanation. ~ou can float, stand on ~our "You have to thank ·God that head, bounce off things, and it you are able. to do' it. That's doesn't make any dif'ference." what it amounts to. I don't think , ~ He said space scientists didn't you can do it without believing ~now whether or not astronauts in God." · could survive at zero G until Evans and his wife and their they tried it children, Jon and Jaime, plan to visit in. Topeka and Kansas Can Shed Suits City before returning to .their ·« Ci:ewmen on ~p<>llo .· flights home in Seabrook, Tex. Aug. 27. probably will be able· 1:o take ·------'----- off the cumbersome s~ace suits after Iaunc,hing, he predicted. Page 3 of 3