Weekend with Apollo astronauts and a shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center

This past weekend I had a chance to attend an Apollo astronaut event and to see the launch of STS-117 (Space Shuttle Atlantis). What a cool weekend to meet and chat with Apollo astronauts, mission control specialists, and others from the original American space programs.

I saw the launch (7:38PM) from the causeway. This photo is with a cheap digital camera with very little zoom applied. It is basically how I saw the launch.

About an hour later, the contrails mixing with the sunset created a terrific image behind the KSC rocket garden. I’ve never seen anything quite like those white swirling contrails against a blue black sky.

The dinner on Saturday night was terrific. The Saturn V center at KSC was an ideal venue. Ran into real and virtual friends including Larry, Noah, Jason, Mike & Miranda, Robert, Steve, Mark, and others.

I was lucky to sit at Gene Cernan’s table and enjoyed his stories of landing on the moon and his thoughts at being “the Last Man on the Moon.”

Comments

[Gordon R. Vaughan]

Hi Dave,

I just ran across this blog via Web Ink Now. So I wonder ... do you have Apollo stuff all over your house? Someone once called that decorating style "early astronaut"!

I worked two summers during college for JSC's Propulsion & Power Div., and there was an RL-10 engine standing right by the elevators when you got off.

It was maybe 7 feet tall, so about the perfect size for a good display. I'd love to have one of those, though I'm not sure where I'd put it.

You wrote in your "about" post that you've been reading lots of Apollo books. I'm amazed how many there are, on just about everything if you look hard enough.

Since you just wrote about the best/worst biz books on your other blog, it would be interesting to know what you thought were the best Apollo books.

While I know prices for U.S. space artifacts have really risen in recent years, I was wondering if Soviet stuff is still fairly available (that won't be in a few more years), or do Russia/Ukraine/Kazakhstan have laws limiting that?

Also, I thought you might find my blog AeroGo [http://www.xanga.com/AeroGo ] interesting. There's not too much about Apollo, but a fair amount about commercial space, etc.

[Carole]

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