With Eileen Collins at Tulsa Air & Space Museum

by JonathanNo Comments
Saturday March 25 was one of those days when I pinch myself and say, “I can’t believe I get to do this.” Eileen Collins and I signed 300 copies of her memoirs today at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. EVERY child in attendance received a free, personalized copy of the book, thanks to the generosity of Spirit AeroSystems. What a remarkable way to inspire the generation who will take us to Mars and beyond in their lifetimes! Eileen and I also spoke in the planetarium about her career and answered questions from the audience. Thanks to Tonya Lewis Blansett for inviting us to be part of this event, to Dayle Kenyon and Lois Huneycutt for crowd control and taking photos, to Bill Moore for his fascinating perspectives on Oklahoma aerospace history, and to the staff of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum for treating us like royalty. Signing books and welcoming the public!...
Read More

SpaceX Launch Team is “Go!”

by JonathanNo Comments
Mike Leinbach, the final Launch Director of the Space Shuttle Program, and the last man to give the "go for launch" for a crewed US mission from Kennedy Space Center, returned to his old stamping grounds on May 25. He was invited by SpaceX management to meet with the SpaceX launch team and answer any questions they might have about what it's like to launch humans into orbit. The testing and launch countdowns for the final decade of Space Shuttle launches were run from Firing Room 4 in the Launch Control Center (LCC). Back in the Shuttle era, four stair-stepped tiers of consoles were staffed by test conductors, security officers, public affairs officers, and other managers. On the main floor, eight semi-circular arcs of consoles, staffed by engineers specializing in the systems of the Space Shuttle and the ground support equipment, faced toward the manager rows and the large windows. Off to either side of the management rows were triangular, glassed-in...
Read More
Working on Apollo at Kennedy Space Center

Working on Apollo at Kennedy Space Center

by JonathanNo Comments
It was my great privilege to be asked to help the NASA Alumni League – Florida Chapter kick off their month-long celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. I attended their June 18, 2019 meeting at the Debus Center at Kennedy Space Center. NASA Alumni League lunch, June 18, 2019 (Photo by Al Koller) Rather than giving a speech or showing a PowerPoint presentation, Roselle Hanson and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to have the attendees talk about what it was like to work on the Apollo program at KSC. I polled several Facebook interest groups, “If you could ask a question to someone who worked on Apollo at KSC, what would you want to know?” I got some great questions and used those as conversation starters. The questions and answers below are transcribed directly from my recording of the event. Where I can identify the person who spoke on the recording, I’ve indicated their name. Q.  What...
Read More

Saying Farewell to Saturn: Part 2—The Final Plunge and a Legendary Party

by JonathanNo Comments
Friday, September 15, 2017 I managed to fall asleep sometime after 9 p.m. Pacific Time Thursday evening. I awoke just before my alarm was set to go off at 2 a.m. Friday. I again felt grateful to the wise people in JPL media relations for making us go home Thursday afternoon so we didn’t have to stay “on Lab” overnight! When we left the hotel at 2:30, my colleague Stephen van Vuuren had already written his social media post to go live at 5 a.m. accompanied by a mosaic of Cassini’s final portrait of Saturn compiled by Jason Major, who has done much of the image processing for In Saturn’s Rings. The drive from our hotel in Arcadia was very smooth until we got near Flintridge. Caltrans had blocked off all three exits from the westbound 110 to the JPL area for road construction! Fortunately, we were able to get off at the next exit and double back. Thank goodness for GPS...
Read More

Saying Farewell to Saturn – Part 1

by JonathanNo Comments
This is the first part of a three-part blog about the end of the Cassini mission to Saturn, and my small part as an observer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during mid-September 2017. Everyone remembers their first glimpse of Saturn through a telescope. It seems unbelievable that you could see a planet with rings—but there it is! I gazed at Saturn a few weeks ago with my new 90mm spotting scope, and I attempted to capture my first image of a planet that evening. I shot several minutes of video through the scope and then used image stacking software to make a composite of the hundred or so best frames of video. To my surprise, the image came out pretty well. The image in the video is much larger than Saturn appeared through the eyepiece. You can just make out some of Saturn’s atmospheric bands and maybe a hint of the Cassini division between the A ring and B ring…or am I...
Read More

Witnessing the Total Solar Eclipse of March 7, 1970

by Jonathan1 Comment
With the levels of hype and anticipation rapidly growing for next month's Eclipse Across America (or whatever people are calling it now), I have been reflecting on when I witnessed a total solar eclipse back in 1970 as a 13-year-old. I was an 8th grade student at Walt Whitman Intermediate School in the Mt. Vernon area south of Alexandria, Virginia. I was deeply interested in all things space and astronomical. I had received a toy-store 3" reflector telescope for my birthday in 1968, and I quickly outgrew its capabilities. My parents gave me a 4-1/2" Tasco reflector telescope for Christmas in 1969. As a subscriber to Sky and Telescope magazine, I knew full well that the path of a total solar eclipse would be skirting the East Coast of the United States on March 7, 1970. Our home was about 200 miles away from the path of totality. We'd see a very nice partial eclipse with only a thin sliver of the sun...
Read More

“Farewell, Columbia” at Spacefest VIII, June 11, 2017

by JonathanNo Comments
With seven-time astronaut Jerry Ross at my side, I gave a presentation at Spacefest VIII in Tucson on June 11. It summarized the incredible story of the recovery and reconstruction of space shuttle Columbia following the February 1, 2003 accident that took the lives of her crew. Having spent the past two years conducting nearly a hundred interviews with people ranging from the former Administrator of NASA to the women who volunteered at the Hemphill, Texas VFW Hall, I had so much I wanted to say and so little time in which to say it! Of course we could only touch on the highlights of the story and just a few of the 25,000 people who made this—the largest search and recovery operation in US history—a success. Even the book, which is due in December, will just barely be able to scratch the surface. I recorded the presentation, and Jerry kindly consented to my posting his comments publicly. I encourage you to listen...
Read More

The Science of Eats

by JonathanNo Comments
My hat is off to the wonderful folks at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. They know how to attract traffic at the museum - with food and alcohol after hours! Last night was the museum's annual "Science of Eats" adults-only special event. Exhibitors with fine foods and beverages crafted in North Carolina were featured, all with a bit of a scientific tie-in for their products. For example, a local craft whiskey distiller had information about the fermentation and distillation process. I was invited to participate, since I've had a table as a Solar System Ambassador at the museum's "Cocktails and Cosmonauts" events in the past. They told me I didn't need to talk about food but would be happy to have me there anyway. I'm not one to turn down an invitation to participate in an event with food or to leave a challenge unaccepted. I decided to put together a video on the evolution of the food that astronauts have taken...
Read More