I'm trying to decide whether she was a crewmember or a passenger of the Admiral Peary. She spent a good deal of time on the ship and a good deal more at the embassy. Was she a State Department employee attached to the embassy who stayed aboard the ship for a while to help out its medical officers until everyone recovered from cold sleep, or was she a medical officer herself who was on a detached assignment to the embassy? I don't recall the text being very clear on that point. Turtle Fan 02:12, August 24, 2010 (UTC)
- I'm still at a disadvantage. TR 04:39, August 24, 2010 (UTC)
- I think I'll just delay making a decision till I forget about it. That's a very common tactic for me when I don't have enough information to make a call and don't feel like digging around to find it.
- Actually, I do remember that she was a civilian. Now a civilian could easily be part of the crew, especially a doctor; but that status combined with the fact that it's The Way That Requires Less Up lead me to declare that Dr Melanie Blanchard is officially Not An Astronaut.
- If only the Conquest Fleet were that easy. . . . Turtle Fan 05:07, August 24, 2010 (UTC)
So seven and a half years later, Jonathan decided unilaterally that she is an astronaut. He has added this to the other, none-crew members like the Yeagers and the other scientists who went down to the surface of Home. I left it be because my impression was that while they were passengers, they were more akin to NASA payload specialists than anything else. However, I wish to follow-up on this discussion and see if Turtle Fan especially is OK with this. ML4E (talk) 16:37, February 24, 2018 (UTC)