[Monkey Face]

That was so awesome to watch!!!
I’m still not tired of it.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

From the Shoemaker bio:

"In 1961 he took a leading role in the USGS venture, in Flagstaff, Arizona, into the study of "astrogeology", the Ranger missions to the moon and the training of the astronauts. It had long been Gene's dream to go to the moon himself, but in 1963 he was diagnosed as having Addison's disease, a condition that prevented him from becoming an astronaut."

Evidently he didn't have the equivalent of Joseph P. Kennedy as his father! NASA would have had some strings pulled and some wheels greased.