posted 03-11-2004 12:38 PM               

I spent a nice evening last night in the company of Payload Specialist Loren Acton and about 25 other members of the BIS at the London Headquarters.

Dr Acton flew on the STS-51-F Spacelab 2 mission. Dr Acton specialises in solar hpysics and has conducted research for over 40 years in this field.

The lecture took the form of a MS Powerpoint slide show with Dr Acton narrating the slides and video clips. He entertained us all with interesting solar facts and how the Spacelab 2 experimants were performed. And told us about the effects spaceflight had on his body,while showing us a slide of him gingerly walking down the steps post landing holding onto both handrails quite tightly !

When asked what his greatest achivement was in orbit he gladly told us how he had managed to throw an orange through a spinning roll of tape from a few feet away !

Im sure a great night was had by all who attended and Dr Acton gladly signed autographs after the lecture for those who wished for them.

Many thanks to the staff of the BIS, and Dr and Mrs Acton for another great evening.

posted 03-12-2004 02:16 PM            

I didn't make it - since rebuilding a major aerospace computer server.