Where have all the astrogators gone?

[Lindorm]

In an age of remote operations and semi-automnous vehicles, not to mention hundreds of discarded communication satellites,  is there still a place for Heinlein's heroic space cadets and Clarke's Relay Stations, staffed by engineers in blue coveralls or rolled shirtsleeves and a pipe?

An amusing little read from the Rocketpunk Manifesto blog:

http://rocketpunk-manifesto.blogspot.com/2008/02/hard-sf-so-hard-its-impossible.html

[beagle]

Wasn't there an A.C.Clarke story where the computers broke down and the heroic astrogators had to do all the navigating by abacus?

I suspect Dark Star had best vision of how it will be. The lavatory paper will run out, the canteen will jam on only serving chicken, and the crew will be trying to kill each other within a few years.

[Swatopluk]

Unfortunately there is (to my knowledge) no acceptable Lem translation into English, so you would have to use the (excellent) German language editions (those outsold the original Polish edition easily).
The Pilot Pirx stories would be the choice on this topic I presume.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Tales_of_Pirx_the_Pilot
That would be especially true because man-computer/robot interaction play a large part here, ranging from the "simple" autopilot to the test of novel robots similar to the replicants a la Blade Runner.
A special text would the story in this cycle titled Ananke, where the personality of the computer trainer* has catastrophic effects.

*The idea is that after basic programming the computers are trained by human teachers and able to learn the behavior and skills necessary to pilot interplanetary ships. They are taught until they "pass the exams" made by their teachers. This is similar (though not identical) to the system A.C.Clarke describes in the Odyssee cycle.