Tom Stafford Sighting!

This post is really overdue. Blogging has not been a priority these days, but when something is worthy of a post I will try to keep it updated.

January 31st was the 50th anniversary of Explorer 1, which was the first American satellite. Explorer 1 spoke with a distinct German-Alabama dialect. In response to the Russian Sputnik launches and America's failed response in the form of Vanguard, Werner von Braun and his team based in Huntsville was task to get something into orbit. The rest is history, so they say.

To commemorate, there were several events around town. The highlight was the black-tie VIP gala to open the Davidson Center for Space Exploration which is the new home of Huntsville's restored Saturn V. For many years the Saturn V sat out in the weather and decayed badly. It's now shiny and new and cozy in truly massive and modern building.

I posted about moving the rocket into the partially completed building back in July. Click on the link to read the old post.

I was not invited to any of the VIP events, but a free symposium was held that I was able to attend. Several historians spoke about the events of the 1950's which led to the launch of Explorer 1. Included in one panel was Konrad Dannenberg, one of the few surviving members of von Braun's team who came to America after Germany was defeated in World War 2.

In the center of this picture is Mr. Dannenberg, holding a full-size model of the satellite.

The picture recreated a famous picture from 1958 in which von Braun, James van Allen, and Thomas Pickering held aloft the satellite after it successfully was orbited. Here is the original for comparison.

The next person to speak was a Russian surgeon -- Natalia Korolevna. She is the daughter of Sergei Korolev, the "Chief Designer" of the early Soviet space program. He oversaw the design and building of Sputnik I as well as the rocket that placed it into orbit. He was responsible for Yuri Gagarin's flight as well. His name was a state secret and he remained anonymous until his death in 1966. His ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall behind Lenin's tomb. I visited Korolev's grave during Grace's final adoption trip. Here she is in front of a replica of Sputnik 1.


She received a standing ovation when she was introduced. Her first ovation was surpassed at the end of her talk when she spoke of von Braun's and Korolev's shared vision for human exploration of Mars, concluding with "working together let's go -- POYEKHOLI!"

Once that talk concluded, the next panel began. It was chaired by Ed Buckbee, who wrote a book with Wally Shirra called "The Real Space Cowboys". Buckbee was von Braun's public affairs officer during the 1950's and 1960's. He was the first president of the Space and Rocket Center and founded Space Camp. In addition to Buckbee, Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter, Apollo 16 moonwalker Charlie Duke, and Apollo-Soyuz Commander Tom Stafford were participants.

If you don't remember the story, Tom Stafford adopted two Russian boys in 2003. Stafford is my father's age. Stafford is fond of saying, "I have flunked retirement three times." Tom Stafford is second from the right in this picture.


I learned about Stafford's adoption on the 30th anniversary of his joint US-Soviet Apollo Soyuz mission. This was only two hours before we got a "bad call" from our agency saying our adoption plans were going to be on an indefinite hold. It really was a great motivator for me and carried me through the long period of waiting.

Once we had completed the adoption of Jason, I told our Russian facilitators that Jason Alexei was named in honor of Alexei Leonov, Tom Stafford's Russian counterpart on the mission. Our facilitators told us, "oh! We facilitated General Stafford's adoption!". Who knew. On our first trip to visit Grace our translator, Sonya handled Stafford's case.

A student asked the panel, "What do you tell your Grandkids to get them interested in space." Stafford mentioned that he adopted two Russian boys and that one of them asked for a new iPod. The boy already had one iPod to which Stafford said, "On Gemini 6 Wally Schirra performed the first in-space rendezvous. The iPod you have has 1 MILLION times the computing capacity of our flight computer we used for the rendezvous and now you are asking me for an iPod with 2 MILLION times the computing capacity."

The poor kid does not have a chance.

Unfortunately, I did not get to speak to General Stafford. They kept all the VIP's behind a curtain. I stalked and stalked but did not get anywhere with the rent-a-cop guarding the curtain. Oh well. I was really glad to have a chance to see General Stafford in person.