I love that no matter what happens, the first person in space was a peasant boy from a socialist state. His mother was a dairy farmer and his father was a carpenter. He wasn't some son from a rich family like all of the American astronauts inevitably were. I look up at space at night and that simple fact has brought me to tears more than a few times.
That's not entirely true. I have a relative who flew Gemini and Apollo missions, and, while he wasn't poor, his parents were definitely working class. They didn't have enough money to send him to college so he took a year off after high school and worked in a factory to save money and did his first two years of university at a community college.
Yeah, the first several "generations" of US astronauts were mostly Air Force test pilots. It is a very dangerous job with a low life expectancy, and rich people usually aren't career military people to begin with. So, while the test pilots weren't poor due to the job paying at least decently, a lot were not from very wealthy or privileged, beyond being white men, background.
I love that no matter what happens, the first person in space was a peasant boy from a socialist state. His mother was a dairy farmer and his father was a carpenter. He wasn't some son from a rich family like all of the American astronauts inevitably were. I look up at space at night and that simple fact has brought me to tears more than a few times.
That's not entirely true. I have a relative who flew Gemini and Apollo missions, and, while he wasn't poor, his parents were definitely working class. They didn't have enough money to send him to college so he took a year off after high school and worked in a factory to save money and did his first two years of university at a community college.
I hope you're lying that you're related because otherwise this is very doxxing.
Not really, he is a distant relative, I've never met him. I only know his story because I wrote a paper about him when I was a kid.
deleted by creator
Yeah, the first several "generations" of US astronauts were mostly Air Force test pilots. It is a very dangerous job with a low life expectancy, and rich people usually aren't career military people to begin with. So, while the test pilots weren't poor due to the job paying at least decently, a lot were not from very wealthy or privileged, beyond being white men, background.