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 http://dolearchives.ku.edu --------·- -- --- Fi,rSt Man on 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." veloped by private companies gree in electrical engineering. would be in early 1968, will To Ev8J11, critics aren't can get technological infor- He entered the Navy from the come launching of what the as- who justified who contend too mation for the asking and put it KU Navy ROTC program and tronau.ts h a v e dubbed "Big much is spent on the apace to their own use. attended Navy flight school in Mother." That is the moon rock- program when there are so 5, which will be fired Pensacola, Fla. et, Saturn The benefit to all Amer- many µnsolved domestic this fall. The former jet fighter pilot icans is ,only one reasO'n problems. and Vietnam combat veteran Until the astronauts have con- why Evans · is surp that "Our nation has decided we earned a master's degree in quered the lunar territory, going to attempt this pro- electrical· engineering after he Evans said, scientists won't "there will always be a are ject," he said, that should be joined the Navy. know what to do with it. sp·ace program." reason enough He dreamed of being an astro- "It cou~d be a cmnmunica- Its ties to civilian industry Evans said he was not the naut for seven years ·before he tions station. We might find rich and the millions of oollars al- man who could say which was chosen. Being an astronaut mineral resources there. located in government spending country is ahead in the U.S.· is "a realization that I oould have made it one o'f the vital Soviet Union "space race" and do something to help the nation Who Cares? factors in the American econ- he doesn't agree that it is a get to the moon." · ''But I feel it really doesn't omy, he explained. contest. The glory that he admits make any difference what might "Of .cuurse it costs a great te up. there," he said. "The fact deal," he addtect; '1M "WMn ,' is involved is "only a by- Page 2 of 3 produd." that we are going to go and the you comparelt 'lia'W.'"u!.r. 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 writersThis documentare in isthe from realm the collections of at the Dole Archives, University of Kansas which seems s'o strange to earth- future possibility. http://dolearchives.ku.edu ·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.