I have just been talking with my cohorts over at the neighboring Aerospace Museum and, very unusually, there are still tickets available for one of their astronaut talks. Here is some information on the event and how to get a ticket. If you haven't heard Walt speak in person, he is great.Plus the museum is now the home of the Apollo 9 CM, if you have yet to see it!
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Astronaut to Offer Rare NASA Perspective
Apollo 7 Crew Member Makes Rare Appearance in San Diego
(October 7, 2004) – A renewed public interest in space flight has been launched this fall with the spectacular successes of the privately funded SpaceShipOne high over the Mojave Desert. Later this month, San Diegans interested in the history of space exploration will have an opportunity to meet one of America’s space pioneers and hear behind-the-scenes stories of NASA and its programs.
Astronaut Walter Cunningham will be at the San Diego Aerospace Museum on Thursday, October 21st, at 7:30 p.m. to participate in the Museum’s 27th Aerospace Lecture Series, Space Flight: Past, Present and Future, presented in collaboration with the local chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Cunningham, now a retired Marine Corps Reserve Colonel, served as the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 7 in October 1968. The eyes of the world and the hopes of NASA were on Mission Commander (and current Rancho Santa Fe resident) Wally Schirra, Command Module Pilot Donn Eisele and Cunningham as they flew the first manned Apollo mission almost 21 months after the ill-fated Apollo 1 launch pad fire that took the lives of fellow astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee. Through 11 days of rendezvous maneuvers, engineering tests and systems checks, the crew validated the integrity of the Apollo Command and Service Module assembly on a task-saturated mission that NASA dubbed “101 percent successful.”
Registration for Col. Cunningham’s lecture Thursday, October 21st at the San Diego Aerospace Museum is $10 for Museum members/$15 for non-members. Students accompanying AIAA or Museum members, or Student Branch AIAA members at USD or UCSD will be admitted free. To register or for more information, please contact the Museum’s Education Department, (619) 234-8291, Ext. 19 or log on to www.aerospacemuseum.org . The San Diego Aerospace Museum is located in Balboa Park, 2001 Pan American Plaza.
[This message has been edited by FFrench (edited October 15, 2004).]