The Bad Boys of Apollo

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Bad Boys of Apollo

“Amongst the (Group 5 astronauts) were pilots I knew well from Edwards. Charlie Duke, Ken Mattingly, Stu Roosa, and Ed Mitchell had all been at the Aerospace Research Pilot School with me. Fred Haise had attended, too, although he had left to do other test pilot work by the time I arrived. While at Edwards, we used to have parties at Stu Roosa’s house every weekend, some of the craziest drunken parties I have ever been to. We’d wake up in the morning, find that we’d set fire to objects on his front lawn, and have no memory of doing so. The five of us already knew each other well, and our camaraderie continued when we moved to Houston. We socialized for a while before we were absorbed into the wider program, and we were bad boys - really bad. In the end, all of us flew to the moon during the Apollo program.”

-from Falling to Earth, by Al Worden with Francis French