Eisele, Donn Fulton (1930–1987)
American astronaut and Air Force colonel involved with the Apollo
program. Eisele was selected as an astronaut in October 1963, and served
as Command Module (CM) pilot on Apollo 7
and backup CM pilot for Apollo 1 and 10. He received a B.S. from the United
States Naval Academy in 1952 and a M.S. in astronautics from the Air Force
Institute of Technology in 1960. After earning his wings in 1954, he flew
as an interceptor pilot for four years before attending the Air Force Institute
of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. After graduating, he worked
there as a rocket propulsion and aerospace weapons engineer from 1960 to
1961, attended the Aerospace Research Pilot School, and then worked as a
project engineer and experimental test pilot at the Air Force Special Weapons
Center at Kirtland Air Force Base. As an astronaut, Eisele was assigned
to pilot the first manned Apollo flight but broke his shoulder during training
and was replaced by Roger Chaffee. The accident
saved his life because Chaffee, along with Virgil Grissom
and Edward White died in a launch-pad fire
during a rehearsal for the mission. Eisele resigned from NASA's Astronaut
Office in 1970 and became the technical assistant for manned spaceflight
at the Langley Research Center, a position
he occupied until his retirement from both NASA and the Air Force in 1972.
Related category
• ASTRONAUTS
AND COSMONAUTS
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