Several years ago, I shook the hand of an astronaut where I speechlessly asked nothing clever, so he cheerfully took charge of the conversation.
What do you ask a man who has walked on the moon for Apollo 16?
After all, I’ve grown up with the space program.
GROWING UP WITH THE SPACE PROGRAM
Before I even started school, I watched the first moon landing with my parents on tv.
As the Apollo missions gave way to the dream of space shuttles, we kept an eye on the latest news of that possibility.
About the time I discovered a new after school rerun on television called Star Trek (the first episode I ever saw was The Trouble with Tribbles), test runs at Edwards AFB began in 1975 with the first test shuttle, named the Constitution, which was renamed the Enterprise in 1977.
Minimally constructed only to test its ability to glide from atop an airplane and safely land, the Enterprise never flew in orbit.
Named the first command module from Apollo 11 to land on the moon (and the first American ship to sail around the world), the Columbia began test flights after its construction in 1975, with the intent that it would be the first space shuttle to fly into space.
Following its progress, the Columbia’s big moment came as it rolled out of the factory on March 8, 1979 to ride atop a specially rigged Boeing 747 from California to Cape Canaveral, Florida where it would be launched into space.
Then on March 23, 1979, the local news announced that the Boeing 747 carrying the space shuttle Columbia had landed at Kelly AFB in San Antonio to spend the night.
Wait a minute! That’s just a few miles from our house!
Of the 200,000 San Antonians who descended on the base to see this first space shuttle to orbit space, four of them included me, my brother, and our parents! (Can you pick me out in the crowd at the linked photo?)
While there, one of the original Apollo astronauts, Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, now program manager for Shuttle Flight Test Operations, was interviewed. (He is featured in several of the movies that I mention, below.)
Upon arriving Kennedy Space Center, the Columbia spent nearly two years in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), about a month in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and a little over three months sitting on a launch pad.
With suspense building, everyone wondered if success would happen.
I’ll never forget that day, when finally, our someone announced over our school intercom, on April 12, 1981, that the Columbia had successfully launched into space!
Breaking two records, Columbia was the first space shuttle in space, and the first space shuttle to successfully be reused, when it launched again on November 12, 1981.
Soon the space shuttle fleet grew to five reusable space shuttles, a huge departure from the single-use Apollo missions that first took man to the moon.
MOONWALKER
When I heard a creative radio advertisement for a new book, the author’s humor was so catching that I knew I had to get that book about his life as an astronaut.
At The Shepherd Shop Christian Bookstore in San Antonio, I met the author, Charlie Duke, whose wide smile immediately greeted me as he shook my hand.
Next to him stood his wife, Dotty, who had written one of the chapters from a wife’s perspective.
They both autographed my new copy of Moonwalker.
Promoting his book, Moonwalker, he wrote about his journey to become an astronaut, his adventures on the moon, and about his Christian testimony.
As I read his fascinating book, I learned that after retiring from the space program, he moved from Houston to New Braunfels, where I did my student teaching!
At the time I taught third and fifth graders…
Knowing how much my students always loved pretending to become astronauts with space units I assembled, I borrowed from the school district Charlie Duke’s VHS tape made especially for young students.
They had a blast with his great sense of humor, while learning lots of information about astronauts and moon landings in an interesting way.
And then I started having kids of my own…while learning more about the space program.
APOLLO 13
After watching an interview with astronaut James Lovell, the main character in this drama, I couldn’t wait to see this movie. Amazing!
By now I knew my astronaut history well enough to know this movie was extremely accurate and well dramatized.
A few years later, while a boat ride on a lake in the Texas Hill Country, some friends pointed out Jim Lovell’s lake house as we rode by!
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
After the premier of the HBO series, From Earth to the Moon, narrated by Tom Hanks, I received a copy to view.
Covering the history of the space program, I learned a lot about the purpose of the Mercury Program, then the Gemini Program, and finally the Apollo Program, which is a great lesson in physics.
However, my favorite story in the series was the geologist turned astronaut, Jack Schmidt, through whom the series told the story of how the astronauts were trained to become geologists.
While on the moon, the astronauts communicated with Mission Control about the types of rocks they saw, then collected the ones the scientists most requested.
Since I took geology in college, I better understood what the astronauts did while on the moon.
Understanding the importance of collecting moon rocks, the key difference was that I view geology from a Creationist viewpoint as opposed to an Evolutionist one.
THE RIGHT STUFF
Though interesting, humorous, and based on fact, parts were obviously contrived.
Thus, I’m glad I learned a lot of facts about the space program before watching this one.
Nevertheless, other parts are factually well done.
HIGH CALLING
One morning I woke up to the horrible news that the space shuttle Columbia, which I had seen before its maiden voyage at Kelly AFB, had disintegrated over the skies of Texas.
As soon as it hit the shelves, I purchased the book about one of the astronauts who died on the Columbia, Rick Husband, written by his wife, High Calling, about his career, family and faith.
Finding the audio book, I played that for my kids to listen to before our journey to Johnson Space Center.
VISITING JOHNSON SPACE CENTER IN HOUSTON
When my kids were nine and twelve, we visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston for our summer vacation.
While touring the space center, we watched space walks from the space shuttle via the giant media screens at the top of the walls.
Taking a tour of the facilities, we saw many of the same locations shown in the movie, Apollo 13, like mission control.
We sat in the very room the Lovell family sat as they watched their dad give his television spot that no one was watching.
We saw the very room where all the scientists sat in front of their monitors working through the mission.
The gift shop was full of items with the logos, “Houston, we have a problem.” and “Failure is not an option.”
The kids participated in several interesting activities.
MISSION CONTROL
The book, Mission Control, includes paintings by astronaut, Alan Bean of Apollo 12.
Despite their fascination with seeing the moon up close, they were especially intrigued by seeing the backside that no one had ever seen before.
While taking lots of pictures, they stopped in silent awe as they came around to the front of the moon again, seeing the earth…an azure marble beauty set against the black void of space.
DESTINATION MOON
I also purchased Destination Moon by astronaut James Irwin, of Apollo 15.
He was a Christian who came to a deeper faith in his walk because of this out of the world experience.
RESOURCES
Grammar level – I told my kids about Charlie Duke, and we watched Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff before visiting Johnson Space Center.
Dialectic level – we did all of the above except Moonwalker, and studied geology, like an astronaut, but from a Creationist viewpoint.
Rhetoric level – we read Moonwalker, and watched Apollo 13 and From Moon to the Earth.
EPILOGUE 2012
On April 21, 2012, the decommissioned space shuttle Discovery flew over our Virginia house en route to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazey Museum, where it would replace the space shuttle prototype, Enterprise.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise was relocated to the Intrepid Museum in New York City.
