Author Topic: How were you inspired by Apollo and other space milestones?  (Read 2409 times)

Offline sputnikschild

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I have recently been engaged in a project looking at the role played by space exploration in shaping the ideas and lives of the baby boomer generation. The result of this project was a book - Sputnik's Child - which chronicles how events like the first circumnavigation of the Moon, the first Moon landings, the near drama of Apollo 13, and the tragedy of Challenger had a lasting impact on a generation.  As a professor, it is also apparent that today's generation has not had the same inspirational experiences.

What impact did the Apollo missions or other space exploration milestones have in your personal development?

Check out www.sputnikschild.com or on Facebook at Sptunik's Child. . Sputnik's Child is recognized by the Space Foundation as a Certified Imagination Product, and all proceeds go to support educational programs to inspire the next generation with space exploration.
« Last Edit: 02/14/2012 03:16 pm by sputnikschild »

Online Chris Bergin

Welcome to the site's forum!

I became interested in NASA/Space as a kid coming back from finishing a paper round and hearing people outside the shop saying "The shuttle exploded" after apparently coming over the radio as a newsflash. I knew what a shuttle was, as I had helped my Dad build a model of Columbia years previously. However, the risk of a disaster did not seem realistic, mainly due to not following the missions. I can actually recall the moment I heard those two men talking about it and I'm sure I thought to myself they weren't talking about the "Space Shuttle". No idea why, probably because I'm so aware of the risk since.

Rushed home, and the TV news was showing the debris landing in the ocean downrange. Became fascinated with the disaster and actually more so seeing a real launch for once. I did think Challenger looked beautiful launching that cold morning on the replays and I'm sure that was the key for me.

Took a bunch of books on shuttle out of the library the next day. That's how it started for me.
« Last Edit: 02/14/2012 01:38 am by Chris Bergin »
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Offline mduncan36

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The first actual spaceflight event I can recall is watching Walter Cronkite talk about the Apollo 1 fire and seeing film of the ruined capsule interior. I kept asking dad what it was about but not completely understanding at the age of four. For some reason I never missed anything after that and became insatiably curious about EVERYTHING above. I became aware that computers were a big part of all of this and included them in my curiosity as well. Fact and fiction led me to a future career path in the digital world. I had great hope for the future but after Apollo led to the failed promise of the Shuttle I learned differently. I still know inside me that the future is out there. It's just going to be up to my kids to make it happen.

Offline DDG40

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I was born in 1959.I was raised in Houston TX. I can remember watching Gemini launches in grade school. As a kid at that time there was nothing cooler than being an Astronaut that was what us guys wanted to be when we grew up.
I remember hearing about Apollo 1 at school. I can still remember it being a cold overcast day in Houston that day. The walk home from school was different that day. We were sad and silent and didn't stop and play we went straight home.
Apollo 11 was the summertime no school. You could watch the mission coverage all day. I couldn't wait for the landing. I was so into this mission. Watching Armstrong take that first step was a highlight of my childhood.
 Apollo 13 missioncamewhen was almost 11. When I saw the chutes and capsule on TV I got choked up and started crying. Not a cool move in public.

Having lived through those times I noticed the difference between my generation of workers vs the younger generation of workers.
My generation was more aware of what was at stake if we didn't do our jobs right. The younger generation in my opinion is unaware of the history of manned space flight, and the implications of not doing the job right every time. It's not their fault.I had the benefit living during the time that manned space flight was front page news to most of the world.

Offline JimOman


Like Chris, I was in school that January morning when Challenger disintegrated 1 minute and 31 seconds into her tenth flight. According to my parents, I came home from kindergarten that day and drew pictures of it for days. Before Challenger, I was fascinated by science and engineering, but my goals where to be a police officer, paramedic and firefighter. Becoming a rocket scientist was then added to that ambitious list of careers.

As life went on, I did become a firefighter, paramedic and police officer. I served for ten years before I was injured in the line of duty and could not return to that line of work.

Laid up from my surgeries, I realized that I should have become an aerospace engineer all along. So that is what I'm doing now!

Jim
NASA National Collegiate Aerospace Scholars, 2010
CSE Student Rep, Congress 2012, 13, 14

Offline sputnikschild

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It is amazing how many people have stories like these.  Keep them coming! 

I distinctly remember my sixth grade teacher (circa 1965) had me keep up a bulletin board with daily news articles about the progress of space exploration.  By the time the year was over, I felt like I was part of the adventure. Apollo 8 had a very profound influence, connecting the adventure of space exploration, science, technology, and religion with the famous view of Earth from space. www.sputnikschild.com

Offline vt_hokie

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I was born in May of '75, so I missed the Apollo lunar missions (and was too young to really see Apollo-Soyuz obviously or Skylab) but I do remember images of the shuttle quite vividly going back to even before STS-1 (as the orbiter was showing up in books, toys, etc.).  So, I definitely grew up in the shuttle era, and somehow I feel even older now having witnessed shuttle retirement.  I also remember sitting on the floor in my parents' living room watching the launch of STS-1 back in 1981!  Not sure why I wasn't at school (was April 12 a weekday?) but in any case, I still remember that to this day.

I did go on to get a degree in aerospace engineering and got to work on some cool stuff, but after two layoffs I figured it was time to do something different, so I'm moving to the dark side and am currently pursuing an MBA! ;) But I'm certainly not opposed to returning to the aerospace industry, should the opportunity arise...
« Last Edit: 02/15/2012 07:45 pm by vt_hokie »

Offline p51

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My earliest memory of having a real conversation with my parents was right after watching one of the later Apollo missions lift off. I think it was Apollo 15 which would have made me REALLY young (I was born at the very end of 1969, you do the math). I can only remember watching it lift off on TV in the morning and the sun was up by then. Later, I walked in my parent’s room and my dad was in there getting something out of a dresser. I distinctly remember saying this was something I’d someday tell my grandchildren. I guess that was something I’d heard from an adult before then and I picked up what it meant. I think dad was kind of surprised to hear someone that young thinking that far ahead. The sad part is my wife and I couldn’t have kids, so there won’t be any grandkids to make that happen, but I’ll sure tell some young kid in the future!
We always followed launches and president inaugurations on TV in my house. Mom had been a school teacher and both my parents had a respect for the truly historic moments that we knew were happening ahead of time. As a kid, we went to Kennedy Space Center and took the tour. We lucked up and saw one of the Viking landers sitting on the launch pad. I never forgot that. My brother (5 years older) and I followed the photos it took and cut them out of the newspapers. We also watched all the early shuttle launches, up to when they stopped airing them on network TV, when we were home (in school, nobody cared and that drove me nuts). What kid DIDN’T want to be an astronaut when they grew up back then? I looked into applying for the program now, but I had the VA check me out and was told my leg issues (I had repetitive stress fractures in the Army that were never allowed to heal properly) would certainly keep me out as I couldn’t even get back to active duty if I’d wanted to due to being non-deployable.
"The years forever fashion new dreams when old ones go. God pity a one-dream man."
-Robert Goddard

Offline Rocket Science

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 I consider myself fortunate to have been born at a point in time which coincided with the birth of NASA and HSF. At the age of five I watched Alan Sheppard in his silver space suit climb aboard his mercury spacecraft for his suborbital flight and into history. I was immediately hooked…  I built every spacecraft and X-plane model that existed at the time especially the X-15. When John Glen orbited the Earth the nation went crazy with excitement and possibilities.
 
Having the New York Worlds fair in my backyard allowed my dreams of spaceflight to wander to new heights with the NASA displays of it current spacecraft mockups and the future Apollo Moon vehicle. The 1960’s were heady days in America with all things being possible. This all came to a screeching halt with the Apollo 1 fire and the loss of her crew.  I learned everything I could about the spacecraft and what went wrong. Information was not always easy to find pre-internet and the newspaper was the main source as well as television reports. We learned from our mistakes, fixed the spacecraft and systems which led with the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.

The space program firmly cemented science, engineering and aviation into my psyche and culminated with learning to fly. I remember my Cessna 152 struggling to climb to about 10,000 feet and wished if I could only go higher… I would need an entirely different ride…

Studies in science and engineering followed as well as the responsibilities of getting married, buying a home and the mundane requirements of daily living and paying the bills, but the dreams of spaceflight remained…
An entire new era in spaceflight arose with first flight of Columbia in 1981. Space was going to be open not to just the square jawed test pilots but to an entirely new breed such as Mission Specialists, Payload Specialist and to one in particular “Teacher in Space”. That was going to be my avenue and I obtained my teaching credentials to spread the wondrous world spaceflight to my students and after that who knew…

On that cold day in 1986 the dreams of a nation was shattered with loss of Challenger, her crew and someone who carried my hopes and dreams as a physics teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The harsh reality of spaceflight was made strikingly clear and the errors will be paid for with blood in treasure.

I wear Christa’s mission patch on my lab coat to remind my students of her mission and to reinforce them that “the laws of physics are unforgiving” when I demand excellence from them in their work. Even when I am brought to task by the department head why I am known for not giving “part-marks” by complaining students and again I will explain how it could once again how it could result in the loss of blood and treasure down the road in whatever careers my students pursue in never striving for excellence and only getting close to the correct answer is not good enough…

In 2002 when the call went out for a new round of astronauts went out this time renamed “Educator Astronaut” My wife at the time said to me “what are you waiting for?” apply and I did. I still have that well-worn letter of acknowledgement and thank you for applying which I repeatedly read and re-read over and over.

The world changed again on that early Saturday morning while I sat alone quietly watching the entry of my old friend Columbia, which got me started in my thoughts of becoming a science teacher and perhaps an astronaut. All seemed normal until with minutes to go until touchdown the radio calls from mission control became unusual from the norm which caused a gnawing feeling in my stomach and the eerie silence that followed. Once again we learned that the laws of physics were unforgiving.

Did the space program have an influence in my life? Yes, and hopefully to any knowledge and wisdom from it always to strive for excellence to my students…

« Last Edit: 02/16/2012 01:06 am by Rocket Science »
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline Phillip Clark

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A story that I have told many times.

I was certainly interested in spaceflight and astronomy when I was 10yo in 1960 and I remember Yuri Gagarin's flight in my 11th year.

Throughout the 1960s most of the media portrayed the Soviet Union being way ahead of the United States in space, yet come July 21st, 1969 (UK time!) it was Neil Armstrong's boot on the Moon.   Why?

So, Apollo 11 got me started with the analysis of the Soviet space programme, trying to figure what they were doing, what they planned to do and what they had done.   Being taken seriously by Geoff Perry in mid-1970 was the best thing that happened in that period.

Of course, my interests have since covered the Chinese, Israeli, Iranian and North Korean space programmes, all of which need some serious analysis rather that reading pretty press kits to understand them.

These days, poor eyesight and writer's block mean that I am hardly writing, but there is one book project that I am slowly working on.   Maybe it will get finished and honour Geoff Perry.
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

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