That combining the Air Force and NASA was a good idea? They should have stuck with one or the other. I found myself actually confused about a lot of the episodes because of this very fact. I wonder if anyone else ever was...
shareA lot of Air Force and Navy pilots have been recruited to be in NASA Space Programs. Many remained in the service for their career.
shareNo, because it's just a silly sitcom that is watchable mainly for Barbara Eden's beautiful face, sexy body, and fun personality.
shareShe was amazing in so many ways.
shareOne of the hottest women ever on TV. I remember an interview with Larry Hagman in the 80s (by that time world-famous as JR), in which he said that the answers to the three questions he gets asked the most are,
"Yes, Barbara Eden is a joy to work with.
Yes, she's every bit as beautiful in real life as she is onscreen.
And no, I never did."
NASA was actually a branch-off of the air force. Some of the first astronauts were originally air force officers.
shareI'm afraid that's not actually correct. NASA began as NACA -- the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which was always pronounced as individual letters "en ay cee ay" rather than as an acronym like NASA is), founded all the way back in 1915. It became NASA in 1958 when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA, and absorbing all of NACA, its budget, personnel, facilities, research labs, etc. NACA/NASA has always been an independent federal agency, not part of the military. Its astronaut corps, however, has always been full of active duty military, mainly though not exclusively air force and navy pilots. They are assigned to NASA, but remain on active duty, and draw their pay from their respective branches, in addition to astronaut pay.
shareOkay, but still, a lot of astronauts had ties to the armed services.
shareNo, because NASA is and has always been full of active-duty navy and air force pilots. Buzz Aldrin, for example, was still on active duty during the Apollo program, he was just assigned to NASA. Post-Apollo, he went back to regular USAF duties, and was made Commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.
shareRoger even states in one of the episodes (can't remember which one, but it was well after the first season) that he is "on detached duty to NASA." He's also a member of the Army Corp of Engineers, and why he wears green army colors and not the blue Air Force colors :)
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