Are Astronauts Heroes?

[mrbaseball]

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So anyway, back to astronauts...Why do we perpetuate the astronaut-hero myth? Someone explain it to me. All my life I’ve been told that astronauts are heroes but I’m not really sure why. Are they heroes if they're in it for the glory or if they spend their entire career behind a desk?


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When I was a kid astronauts were a real big deal. The teacher would stop teaching and we would turn on the radio and listen to the live news of the adventures of Alan Sheppard and John Glenn etc. Then of course the moon landings were huge. The movie Apollo 13 shows plenty of heroism both in the craft and on the ground. However Space Shuttle astronauts seem like glorified airline pilots. Not to say that doesn't have it's risks as we have seen horrifically in the past. There is plenty that can go wrong and a certain degree of heroism or risk is certainly implied. But space shuttle missions seem commonplace nowadays and don't hold the romanticism of the initial space shots or going to the moon.