Psychological and Sociological Aspects of Manned Spaceflight

Abstract

When one reads Mutiny on the Bounty (Nordhoff & Hall, 1932), one develops the concept that Captain Bligh was a sadistic tyrant and that Fletcher Christian was a noble defender of the rights of the downtrodden English seaman. Henry Cooper’s A House in Space (Cooper, 1978) would lead the reader to believe that the crew of Skylab 4 was a mutinous lot and that this unastronaut — like behavior was, in some ways, a result of living in the mysterious environment of outer space. The fictional representation of life aboard the Bounty has been reinforced so strongly by several cinematic versions of this exciting bit of history that fiction has gradually replaced fact. Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff (Wolfe, 1979) and the motion picture version have also implanted a totally erroneous, but widely believed concept of test pilots and of astronauts in the public mind, and, I am sad to say, in the minds of many professionals. Almost forgotten is the detailed account of the Bounty’s voyage that Bligh wrote upon his return to England (Bligh, 1961). More overlooked than forgotten are the objective reports of many astronauts that tell their own versions of their experiences.

If none but the true and useful things were recorded, our immense historical libraries would be reduced to a very narrow compass, but we should know more and know it better -Voltaire