| Top 40 |
| How the votes were cast. Each group member was given the opportunity to vote for their top 8 choices from the first five astronaut groups, a few names were omitted but as the voting showed they probably wouldn't have been chosen anyway. All the lists were then counted and 8 points awarded to the 1st placed astronaut, 7 for the 2nd, 6 for the 3rd etc down to 1 point for the 8th placed man. Each astronaut then had his points counted and a top 40 was compiled using these points. |
| John Young 1st |
| Charles Conrad 2nd |
| James Lovell 3rd |
| Neil Armstrong 4th |
| David Scott 5th |
| Eugene Cernan 6th |
| Michael Collins 7th |
| Alan Bean 8th |
| Gus Grissom 9th |
| Charles Duke 10th |
| Frank Borman 11th 48 - points 0 - 1st places in 12 top 8's |
| James McDivitt 12th 47 - points 1 - 1st place in 11 top 8's |
| Dr.Harrison Schmitt 13th 40 - points 1 - 1st place in 8 top 8's |
| Walter Schirra 14th 31 - points 0 - 1st places in 8 top 8's |
| Alan Shepard 15th 30 - points 1 - 1st place in 6 top 8's |
| Thomas Stafford 16th 24 - points 0 - 1st places in 8 top 8's |
| Buzz Aldrin 17th 21 - points 0 - 1st places in 6 top 8's |
| Gordon Cooper 18th 20 - points 1 - 1st place in 4 top 8's |
| Charles Bassett 19th 17 - points 0 - 1st places in 3 top 8's |
| Fred Haise 21st 15 points |
| Richard Gordon 22nd 13 - points |
| John Glenn 22nd 10 - points |
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| 141- points 8 - 1st places in 26 top 8's |
| 121 - points 6 - 1st places in 22 top 8's |
| 118 - points 5 - 1st places in 22 top 8's |
| 93 - points 4 - 1st places in 20 top 8's |
| 77 - points 0 - 1st places in 20 top 8's |
| 70 - points 1 - 1st place in 15 top 8's |
| 57 - points 1 - 1st place in 11 top 8's |
| 56 - points 0 - 1st places in 11 top 8's |
| 53 - points 3 - 1st places in 10 top 8's |
| 49 - points 1 - 1st place in 10 top 8's |
| Edgar Mitchell 20th 16 - points 0 - 1st places in 3 top 8's |
| Russell Schweickart 24th 8 - points |
| Joseph Engle 25th 7 - points |
| Alfred Worden 26th 6 - points |
| Donald Slayton 26th 6 - points |
| Jack Swigert 28th 5 - points |
| James Irwin 28th 5 - points |
| C.C.Williams 28th 5 - points |
| Thomas Mattingly 28th 5 - points |
| Edward Gibson 32nd 3 - points |
| William Anders 32nd 3 - points |
| Donn Eisele 34th 2 - points |
| Jack Lousma 34th 2 - points |
| Owen Garriott 36th 1 - point |
| Vance Brand 36th 1 - point |
| Edward White 36th 1 - point |
| Roger Chaffee 36th 1 - point |
| Joseph Kerwin 36th 1 - point |
| The following received no votes at all John Bull Gerry Carr Walt Cunningham Ron Evans Ted Freeman Edward Givens Don Lind Bruce McCandless William Pogue Stuart Roosa Elliott See Paul Weitz |
| The more I think about it, the higher Armstrong rises, though I don't think he'd get to my top 8. |
| I'd want Pete Conrad to fly the spacecraft for me. |
| Schmitt-As a scientist Jack Schmitt rose to the top. |
| Cooper-I had 10 and had to drop Gordo and Conrad. I still would have liked to party with those two when they were in their prime. |
| I tried to use a variety of criteria to make my choices. Leadership: if you could be a leader among these men that says a lot in my opinion. Dedication: one needs to be dedicated to the program. Results: when they had a mission how successful was it? What did they do to make it successful? Teamwork: how well did they work together with their fellow astronauts? |
| For some astronauts, like Ted Freeman, we know so little about them that one really can't put them in their top 8. |
| It was a lot tougher to come up with these than I thought it would be. |
| Schmitt-In my estimation, there HAD to be a scientist on one of the lunar trips and he's pretty much it. I don't know him well enough to comment based an any of his works I've read but what I interpret from Gene Cernan's books is that he sure put in all he had and EARNED the slot. |
| Schirra-I liked him fine in Mercury/Gemini but his atitude in Apollo 7 really destroyed that. |
| Shepard-I'm a bit miffed about Cone Crater. |
| These are based on those individuals who I have taken a shine to through reading various books. They also seem to fall within my favourite missions Apollo's 8, 10 and 15. |
| Its not based on who I think are the best astronauts. Perhaps its more along the lines of who I would most liked to fly with. |
| I would define my picks as my 'favorites' rather than as 'the best' because you're giving us the option to pick those who contributed th emost to Apollo as opposed to the best pilots. |
| Schmitt-Came from outside the 'fighter jock' fraternity and yet became an outstanding LMP. He developed procedures for lunar observation and sampling and the only scientist on the moon. |
| Plus the 5 moonwalkers, except Alan Shepard who should have stayed grounded. |
| Schweickart-Derided as the 'token hippy' by the jet jocks. |
| Mitchell-The most open-minded of the moonwalkers. |
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