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Comment by TheOtherHobbes | Hacker News Reader

I wondered about that. Winching someone who can barely walk and is wearing a spacesuit into a helicopter over choppy water is safer and quicker than parking them on a motor boat and sailing back to the mothership?

What was the real reason? Tradition? Lack of imagination? Photo opportunities?

The rest was great tho.

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To play devil's advocate against my own argument: The nearest ship was about 5 km away, which is a decently long boat ride. In choppy waters with a small boat that could be less than ideal for someone who may be injured, weak from an extended stay in microgravity, etc. I assume the plan -- written months or years before the landing -- also had to factor in the possibility that the ships wouldn't have been so close. They did mention several times that the landing was unusually accurate, so it is entirely possible that their pre-planned helicopter ride would have made a lot more sense if they were, say, 20+ km away instead. You don't want dozens of people improvising the procedure in the middle of choppy waters with bad comms, so the best thing to do is to just follow the plan, even if it looks a bit absurd on camera.

100%. Easy to criticize this but you have to remember these are the people that planned and executed a successful moon mission. Pretty sure they know what they are doing and have thought about things in more that just a passing way.

So someone who can barely walk is supposed to safely jump from a space capsule to a boat in the middle of the ocean?

Is 10 days enough to make walking difficult?

People get wobbly legs after spending a few days on a cruise ship at sea.

I would assume spending 10 days in zero G is orders of magnitude more chaotic for your motor skills.

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