Continued, page three. 'Coupin':
Each year, I serve as one of the judges who choose the veteran astronauts whose names will be enshrined in the Astronaut Hall of Fame. This year, we chose four: Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space; Story Musgrave, who performed six gruelling spacewalks during his career, including leading the team that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope; Robert "Hoot" Gibson, who flew the first shuttle docking mission to the Russian space station, Mir; and Dan Brandenstein, who was instrumental in returning the shuttles to flight after the Challenger disaster. We gathered at the Kennedy Space Center for the ceremonies on June 21st.
Left to right in the front row, Scott Carpenter, the MC, John Glenn and Gordon Cooper, Mercury astronauts.
Astronaut Sally Ride, first American woman in space. Sally now teaches Physics and has organized science education programs for children. She's an inspiration to young women wherever she goes. Sorry about the picture focus..it had started to rain. Actually, a deluge had started, so Sally took mercy on us all and kept it short. In essence, she said that as a little girl she dreamed of flying in space. She said she still can't believe it happened.
 Story Musgrave thanks his peers for teaching and supporting him. Mr. Musgrave, now retired, is one of the more remarkable of the group, with several university degrees including a medical doctorate. He is the world's champion spacewalker, and has more time as pilot of T38s than virtually anybody. He says he runs on "full afterburner" or "flight idle." I've never seen the "idle" part.
Gemini and Apollo Astronaut, Jim Lovell. Jim is Chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Indefatigable, he is one of the reasons the foundation works.
I said it rained, didn't I? Actually, it roared and thundered right in the middle of the ceremony, but most of the crowd, like this photographer, stayed in their seats to the soggy end, soaked to the skin, and taking refuge only after the last astronaut had left the stage. If I were one of the honorees, I'd take that as another token of respect.
A good time was had by all..even if we did hear Noah's horn in the distance.
Jim Slade
Return to Home Page.
|
