I wonder why early astronauts/cosmonauts autokemping they are pilot-cosmonaut/astronaut

[Pawelk198604]

I noticed that both astronauts and cosmonauts like to emphases they are pilot-cosmonaut, pilot-astronauts?     

Edited April 10, 2016 by Pawelk198604

[Motokid600]

Not sure I understand. Most astronauts/cosmonauts had/have piloting background so it's only natural. Buzz Aldrin for instance flew in the Korean War. And the first astronauts were military test pilots.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Motokid600

[John JACK]

Spaceships are so easy to control that even an engineer could fly them. It's only logical that astronauts/cosmonauts wanted to be known at least as a honorary SPACE!!! pilots.

[GeneCash]

It's an ego thing. For example, notice the Lunar Module Pilots (LMP) never piloted the LM, the commander did. The LMP title was just to soothe the ego.

[kerbiloid]

31 minutes ago, GeneCash said:

Lunar Module Pilots (LMP) never piloted the LM, the commander did. The LMP title was just to soothe the ego.

"Lunar Module Co-Pilot" doesn't sound cool.

 

[Nibb31]

At one point during Mercury, the US space program wanted all flight to be automated. The astronauts would be passive during the whole flight, like the chimpanzes that flew before them. This of course hurt the ego of these pilots, who went through such a strict selection process that they considered themselves as the best pilots in the country.

When Gemini came around, NASA needed to assign callsigns to crew members. The logical thing, having two pilots would have been pilot and co-pilot. But the astronauts refused because in the aviation world, a co-pilot is inferior to a pilot and these were all supposed to be the best pilots in the country. So they changed the callsigns to Commander (which was a rotating role) and Pilot. This tradition stuck for Apollo and Shuttle.

[benzman]

1 hour ago, Nibb31 said:

At one point during Mercury, the US space program wanted all flight to be automated. The astronauts would be passive during the whole flight, like the chimpanzes that flew before them.

And as test pilots they knew that things often don't work out as planned.  They wanted a full set of controls so they could take over in an emergency, report the problem and try to sort it out.  Chimps can't do that.

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, Nibb31 said:

So they changed the callsigns to Commander (which was a rotating role) and Pilot.

While Kerbals inherit the Soviet role system: Commander/Pilot + (Flight) Engineer + Scientist.

(Perhaps, not honorary title of Pilot-Cosmonaut )

Btw, wiki has table of ranks (not exact, as "Spaceflight Participant" is indeed "Investigator" / "Researcher")

[Pawelk198604]

10 hours ago, GeneCash said:

It's an ego thing. For example, notice the Lunar Module Pilots (LMP) never piloted the LM, the commander did. The LMP title was just to soothe the ego.

So why this position was called LMP i heard that Pate Conrad allowed Alan Bean to pilot lunar module when they ware on dark side of the moon