Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!lwall
From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: married astronauts to fly together?
Message-ID: <11275@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 1 Feb 91 22:29:30 GMT
References: <14243@ulysses.att.com> <11591@ucrmath.ucr.edu> <1991Feb1.161748.28620@zoo.toronto.edu> <_2#&{K&@rpi.edu>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 26

In article <_2#&{K&@rpi.edu> jimcat@itsgw.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak) writes:
: In article <1991Feb1.161748.28620@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
: >In article <11591@ucrmath.ucr.edu> koszelak@ucrmath.ucr.edu (stan koszelak) writes:
: >>...  There are other married astronaut
: >>couples, it's just that none of them have ever flown together
: >>before.  I hope that Headquarters doesn't bother them about it,
: >>but I can just imagine one of their psychiatrists having some
: >>negative comment about it.
: >
: >A much more likely source of trouble than the psychiatrists is management
: >worried about the reaction from the religious Right.  It is not an accident
: >that none of the married couples has ever flown together.
:  
:  I don't understand this. I thought the religious right respected marriage
: as a sacred institution. I'd think they'd be more worried about unmarried
: couples going up in space. After all, there's a commandment that says,
: "Thou shalt not commit adultery"; as far as I know there's nothing in the
: Bible that says "Thou shalt not be fruitful and multiply in orbit".

Many people would like to believe that the religious right is against sex
in any form.  Regardless of the falsity of that sentiment, it's a problem
when people think it, especially when those people are NASA managers, a
breed already noted for their conservatism in other respects...

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov