Most astronauts are right handed, and most crewed orbits are prograde. Who was the first retro lefty?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
-
$\begingroup$ Have there been any crewed retrograde orbits? I'm not seeing any orbital inclinations over about 65° $\endgroup$– notovnyApr 29 at 16:17
-
7$\begingroup$ Re-researching; Yes, there have... just not around Earth. The Apollo missions' Lunar orbits are all retrograde. $\endgroup$– notovnyApr 29 at 16:26
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
8
With notovny's hint, I determined that retro lefty was Jim Lovell, flying in a retrograde orbit around the moon on Apollo 8.
Several photos of Lovell signing autographs show him holding a pen in his left hand, such as this one from the Wisconson Aviation Hall of Fame:
answered Apr 30 at 0:46
-
$\begingroup$ Can you provide a reference that Jim Lovell is a lefty? He is often listed with other lefty Apollo astronauts, but these lists often contain errors. For instance, Buzz Aldrin is often described as a lefty despite published pictures of him signing with his right hand. $\endgroup$– WoodyApr 30 at 1:49
-
2$\begingroup$ I found a photo of Lovell and Gene Kranz signing photos; Kranz has a pen in his right hand, Lovell has a pen in his left. $\endgroup$ Apr 30 at 2:04
-
6$\begingroup$ (Aldrin punches with his right, anyway.) $\endgroup$ Apr 30 at 2:07
-
1
-
2$\begingroup$ after shamelessly sharpening the image it looks like the shortened title on the spine of the book to Lovell's left is something like "Oshkosh 90" and looks like it might be this item in Amazon.com: EAA Oshkosh 1990: Gateway to Aviation my point being that the title of the book is not a mirror image, indicating this image wasn't inadvertently reversed during the publication process, meaning that it's good evidence. $\endgroup$– uhohApr 30 at 21:38
