[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

A note in another thread brought me to wonder how many of us have been to various sites that are significant in the history (or ongoing prosecution) of space flight.

I'll start off. I've been to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. (many times), and to the Garber restoration facility of NASM in Silver Hill, Maryland.

I've been to the Kennedy Space Center twice. The second time, there was a Shuttle on the pad. The first time, there was a Saturn IB with an Apollo spacecraft out on Pad 39B; Pad 39A was in the process of being reconstructed. (That ought to let people isolate that timeframe within no more than a year or so...)

I've been to the Johnson Space Center once. To give you a clue as to the timeframe, the MOCR wasn't in use (i.e., no flights were active), but instead of a TELMU console, there was an EGIL console. (Again, that ought to bring the timeframe into perspective, as well.)

That's about it for me in terms of visiting famous space-related places. How about y'all?

-the other Doug

[nprev]

Well...not as many places as I'd like. (WILL see KSC before I die, though; that's on the list!!!)

-Stationed at Edwards AFB, 1983-1985; saw several Shuttle landings. Also met Chuck Yeager (!) when he was flying test for the F-20. (He's short ; I'm only 5'8" at best, was much taller then him. Made me feel both better and more inadequate at the same time!) Sneaked over & got a good close look at the Enterprise when it was parked in hangar 1414 (tee, hee!) Apparently chased off ElkGroveDan once during a Shuttle landing when acting as a security augmentee, but he'll deny it!

Also briefly met Ellison Onizuka, who died on Challenger. He was often flying back-seat on F-4s @ Edwards, and debriefed him on many aircraft problems (those planes were utter pigs.)

-Saw the (correct me if I'm wrong) Apollo 18 Saturn V laid horizontally in glory @ the Johnson Space Center; no time to stop for the tour, was in the middle of moving from Washington state to Georgia.

-Met Scott Carpenter when I was all of 7 years old at an oceanography lecture in Bozeman, MT (Montana State University, a noted board member's alma mater). He didn't want to talk about Mercury.

-Finally, during the total solar eclipse on 26 Feb 1979, hooked up with some JPL scientists somewhere east of Livingston, MT, at maybe 20 below zero. (They had a Celestron 8; I was irresistably drawn!) One of them was Michael Kobrick, later PI on the Magellan radar. They told me that Io was looking "interesting" in early imagery from Voyager 1; later, they sent me lots of press-release pics (I was still a kid, in the 9th grade. Gotta applaud real-live scientists for taking the time & trouble to foster interest!!!)

[ElkGroveDan]

-Stationed at Edwards AFB, 1983-1985; .... Apparently chased off ElkGroveDan once during a Shuttle landing when acting as a security augmentee, but he'll deny it!

It's a lie I tell you. I never went anywhere near the STS 9 landing. Don't imagine that just because I lived just 60 miles from there and when I heard that the landing had been delayed several hours that I was able to get off of work early. If you think I drove along Highway 58 to my secret spot and pulled the car off the road, hid it behind some shrubs, hiked a half mile, crawled under a railroad trestle, climbed over a security fence and eventually found myself standing on the north end of the Rogers Dry Lakebed then you would be flat wrong. If you think I used a 400mm lens I borrowed and took some of the most amazing photos of my life as the shuttle whooosh'd silently overhead it wouldn't be true. Finally if you think I looked up and saw two jeeps with armed USAF MPs speeding in my direction after it was all over and was able to scoot up over the berm at the end of the lakebed and disappear into the desert shrubs (heart pounding) until they had passed then you'd just be believing those rumors that Nick keeps spreading. He'll probably say the attached image is the approximate route I used to take to watch those early STS landings. I really must dig up those old photos and post them here some time.

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