Furry Ambassador

WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Here's a scene from our house about 8 this a.m. Kirby and Laika seem to have found their Détente..:) 

That said, we had to leave for our south end schoolin' this morning and I wasn't about to leave 8-week old Laika and Kirby alone together for five hours. So, the pup came with.

While the kids were in class, Laika and I hung out in the Honda. While she crawled on me and whimpered, I tried to write the next great American novel. 

When it was time to meet the kids post class, I took Laika to the grassy spot out front of the Southwest Teen Life Center in West Seattle. Puppy = kid magnet, and soon our little furry one had a legion of admirers. What was cool was when people asked her name, the conversation invariably turned into a spaceflight history lesson. 

Laika, we explained, was the first living creature to (reportedly) orbit Earth. (I say 'reportedly, because depending on which account you read, she might not have survived the orbit.) We explained that Laikia's launch was a huge accomplishment for the Soviets. Of course, shortly after that we have to explain that the ability to de-orbit (return to Earth safely) had not yet been developed, so Laika's trip aboard Sputnik 2 was one-way from the get-go. BUMMER! (At this point I find it necessary to link to a NASA article about animals in space that lists a whole lot more animals and a whole lot earlier than Laika. Hmm. Who knew?)

Rather than stop on a sour note, we then inform curious kids about Ham, the chimpanzee NASA launched aboard Mercury Redstone 2 on Jan. 31, 1961. Check out this photo from NASA of lift off. There's so little rocket fire, it's almost hard to believe the chimp reached orbit!

Fortunately, Sam returned intact! Check out this great post-splashdown photo from the NASA archives. ...

And we learned tonight that Ham lived  nice long life - until 1983 (the year I graduated from high school). That's fantastic! 

When we chose the name Laika I figured it as an inside 'joke' of sorts, but as it turns out, already her name has provided us an opportunity to talk to other kids about the history of spaceflight. 

And that is awesome.

SHINE ON HARVEST MOON: There's a full moon this weekend, and a special one at that. For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, it's a "Harvest Moon." (Below is a lovely photo of a harvest moon from Wikipedia.)

As we came back from dinner at our favorite dive bar/diner Hattie's Hat, as we were crossing the Ballard Bridge, I pointed out the big Harvest Moon to the kids. 

Of course that magical moment was spoiled by Annabelle (LOL) asking me why it's called a harvest moon. Christian and I started making noises about it having to do with fall and the harvest. I was quite relieved when I came home and engaged The Google and found a great NASA Science News article about it.

After reading the story, with more confidence I was able to explain to the kids that really not so terribly long ago, none of us had electric lights to use. When daylight ended, work often had to cease. However, this time of year, so many crops are coming on strong and need to be gathered right now. For that reason, for eons, humanoids have been relying on the bright moonlight - the "harvest moon" - to extend their harvest time. 

Of course, I had to dig up a YouTube video of the song "Harvest Moon" for the kids. I was happy to find a 1909 recording for them to check out! 

FREE TICKETS: One day only! Get 'em while they're hot! Saturday, Sept. 29 is National Free Musem Day (thanks to the Smithsonian and participating museums). 

Ticket REQUIRED for entry, and can only be obtained via the Internet at www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/ticket  There, you can browse the list of participating museums by state. The program allows for ONE ticket per household, which is good for TWO admissions. Take the ticket for two admissions with you to the venue. Tickets may have limitations regarding some special (extra fee) exhibits. If museum reaches capacity, museum has right to limit guests until space becomes available.

THERE IS ANOTHER: Tonight at dinner, CJ surprised all of us by ordering a root beer with dinner. He'd never had one before. 

I watched as he took his first sip. He shuddered. But he took a second and a third. We talked about the taste of rootbeer, and how it's different from other sodas. We also noted that many of the neat-o microbrewery places we go to have their own root beers they brew and suggested that CJ might want to consider becoming an aficionado, blogging during his 'pub' crawls. He was all over that, and so when we got home he registered a blog domain: http://therootbeerkid.blogspot.com/  Don't ask me how, but within 5 minutes of creating his blog, he had 17 pageviews!

CJ has all sorts of great ideas already about the ratings he'll give root beers, and he wants to make a custom rootbeer tasting mug with which to sample new brews. I think this might be a lot of fun for all of us. Time will tell. ... 

One of Those Days

A COUPLE OF CARDS: We decided to mix our math time up a bit today by playing card. I fetched the deck of cards we got from the "Explorations in Math" at the Seattle Science Festival a couple months back. 

As a side note, when I visited the "Explorations in Math" Web site today, I learned they're now Zeno and "Math Powered" is their tagline. They explain the name change as "the next evolution of Explorations in Math" and reports "Zeno is about the infinite possibilities that arise from an individual's relationship with math."  

ROBOTIC: This morning we struggled valiantly to try to get the DVD player and TV in the living room to properly play "Robot Adventures with Robosapien (TM) & Friends."

For whatever reason, we just couldn't get the audio to work on the TV. I was SUPER frustrated and trying to troubleshoot the situation and have I mentioned I was SUPER frustrated? As I'm muttering Bad Words under my breath and the video is playing silently on the screen, I couldn't help but laugh at this exchange.

CJ:  It's going to be really hard to read lips during this.
Annabelle:  Yeah, especially since robots don't HAVE lips.

We went to Plan C (when Plan B, playing the DVD on the laptop didn't work, either), and played it in the kids' bedroom. The third time was a charm.

The kids really enjoyed the program and talked about it off and on for the balance of the afternoon. (At one point Annabelle declared her intentions to not only be an astronaut to Mars, but to design and build robots on Mars and send them off on explorations.)

Here are their reviews. Annabelle's is first. 

   Robot Adventures with Robosapian™ & Friends was a part-cartoon video (on DVD) that I watched in the bedroom (for some reason, living room sound wouldn't work) and it was very good. It was about toy robots that would wake up at night, and on Fridays they said it was "movie night." This was presumably the first episode, because they had a new toy in the toy shop and wanted to start from the beginning (of the history of robots, that is) and there were video sections with questions to see if you were paying attention. We *almost* answered all the questions right, and there were three "D" words to describe robot's jobs: Dirty, Dangerous, and Dull. these were called "the three D's" sounds like the three R's, doesn't it? Well, these three D's have NOTHING to do with those.
   We also learned about the main parts of a robot, axis (ack-zeez), motor, and wheels. These parts help the robot move and do it's job. You can also program the robot to have senses, and even give it artificial intelligence, sight, and lasers that can sense how far or close it is to (or from) an object.
   As you can see, robots have many complex parts and can do many, many tasks. In fact, you are using one right now to view my message. and, I think you can stop using this robot for this task, because my message is over.

And here's CJ's report ...

In Robot Adventures with Robosapien & Friends, it starts in a factory, with a woman picking up things, and then leaving. after that, a whole bunch of robots (and a newcomer) turn on. After that, the robots tell the newcomer (roborover) that Friday is movie night, and it is a blue face(?) that comes on the screen. The face tells the robots about how it has access to a different factory, so it knows about that factory. It first tells the robots about how robots are not machines. It then tells them about the earliest robots date back to the 13th century, to make music. 600 years later, in Japan, another robot was made to serve tea. Both are still used today. Near the end, the face told about Asimo, 20-year project humanoid robot made from a Honda. Asimo is currently working with humans now, and he can even interact with "Just Dance." At the end, there was a trick question asking what robots are used for. (It had all the things robots are used for and no "All of the above/below answer.)

DARN IT: Today we FINALLY got around to something that took 60 seconds, but we've been putting it off for days. We sewed up a hole in Annabelle's brand new and beloved footie pajamas. The hole was a factory flaw - just about a three inch section of leg seam someone in China missed. 

We also did a little maintenance to her Vanilla Cupcake hat and scarf combo which she made a year or so ago.

Feels "sew" good to have that done. :)

TIPPING POINT: Perhaps it was three non-stop days of dealing with puppy pee and doggie defecation that finally sent me over the edge, but after a series of Really Lame and Unhelpful actions (or inactions) from the kids, by midday when they somehow couldn't find their frigging math books by themselves (they were approximately 1.5 inches from we normally store them on the shelf after all), I'd had enough. Enough of picking up everyone else's dirty dishes. And dirty clothes, And cleaning up after their dirty shoes. And being the only one to ever replace a roll of toilet paper ... I won't bore you with the rest of the long, LONG list. 

And so, the kids got a "bonus" writing assignment today. I asked them each to write about what "responsibility" is and how they can/should be more responsible. Annabelle came up with this essay, which she titled "What Responsibility is and What it Looks Like." 

Responsibility is when you do what you're supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it. Responsibility makes a clean home and tidy surfaces all around. Responsibility is when you see something that you were supposed to do and didn't do it, but then do it, or in case if you forgot last time. Responsibility can be shown in many ways, for instance, cleaning up your room without even being asked! Being a good family member is also part of responsibility, even if it means tidying up the bathroom and cleaning after your pet. Responsibility is a good thing that all people should have, including manners! Manners are part of responsibility, because you're in control of yourself when you say "please" if you want something and "thank you" when you get it.

CJ's interpretation why (somewhat hysterically) different. Here it is, for your reading pleasure. ... 

Sorry for the things that happened today. I will improve my behavior really soon. One way to be responsible is this: when you are searching for something, (such as a book or pencil) do not look in ridiculous places. (such as under your couch, in your bathroom, etc.) Also, you should not ask someone something as soon as they come through your door. (only do it if it is EXTREMELY important.) A responsible person is someone that is not rude, and they will usually attempt to avoid bad behavior, such as farting in public, and will not hurt people, unless they are defending themselves. People that are responsible will also look in places where the thing they are searching for would be (example: if the thing they were searching for was a book, they they might look in a bookshelf or a business area.) An example of a situation with a responsible person might be this: for a task, a person might get a book from a school, and if they forget to read it on the last day they might say this: Oh my! I forgot to read my book! I need to read it now!.

Oh, CJ. So, so interesting, as always. And so, we had a talk about  the difference (and similarities) between a polite person and a responsible person, and I suggested he read both definitions on Dictionary.com

LITTLE EINSTEINS: Thanks to an email from the National Science Foundation today, I read an interesting article with the headlind "Babies are Born Scientists." 

The article is about new research methods revealing that babies and young kids learn by rationally testing hypotheses, analyzing statistics and doing experiments. Sounds very scientist-like, doesn't it?  The NSF article centers on findings of Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Gopnik is one of three authors of The Scientist in the Crib, first published in 1999 by William Morris.

Midweek

STRUMMING: We worked on math, reading, science and more this morning, including music. CJ's currently trying to learn the original "Super Mario" theme, while Annabelle is working on using power chords to play "Louie, Louie" and "Wild Thing."

They're coming right along and are starting to be able to actually recognize when their guitars are out of tune. :)

BATTER UP: It's been too long since the kids have made anything to hang on the wall, so we cued up Activity.tv and found a cartoon tutorial they were interested in. Led by cartoonist Bruce Blitz, it showed them how to turn the number 10 into a baseball player.

The 0 became the baseball player's head. The 1 would become his bat, after about 20 more steps.

After about five minutes of closely following directions, the kids had managed to produce baseball players they were each proud of.

 Their pencil drawings done, it was time to add some color. Below is Annabelle's batter.

 And here's CJ's slugger. ...

CREATING: In science class the kids had lots of time and leeway to continue experiment with rubbings. Here, Annabelle makes a UFO before using a rubbing technique to apply an insignia.

Here's CJ's shoe, not that an explanation was necessary.

After science it was on to math. There, CeeJ and Bee had lots of fun. They watched a video from the Mathnet series, which originally aired on Square One Television between 1987 and 1992. They also  solved a math mystery from Scholastic's Math Maven series. They were so jazzed about solving the mysteries, we'll definitely have to check them the resources out at home, as well.

While the kids were in class, I spent some time outside in the grass, with short stuff. Today was better than yesterday and we're all inching closer to figuring this new normal out.

Laika has Landed

PUP TOUCHES DOWN: Yesterday's blog was fill with weekend activities and made no mention of how we spent our Monday. I'll fix that now.

Monday morning we were up with the sun and on the road at 7 a.m., southbound. Destination: Puppy Farm (sounds nicer than breeder/puppy mill) to pick up a new furry companion for Kirby and the rest of us.

We reached our destination (LoveLink Havanese in Brush Prairie, WA) at 9:58, two minutes ahead of our projected arrival time. The drive was easy, though a bit foggy. Here, the sun tries to burn through a heavy, low cloud cover over Kent (near where Rick teaches school, BTW). 

We were back on the road within 17 minutes, back northbound, whining puppy in crate. About 5 minutes into the jaunt I couldn't help but wonder, "Why the hell am I doing this?"

However, Laika quickly settled down and we made the trip home without incident. She even went wee-wee at the rest stop along the way. Good doggie.

When we got home instead of immediately bringing Laika in the house, we brought Kirby outside to meet her in the yard. That was interesting. 

Kirby hasn't met a dog she doesn't like yet, and she did take to Laika right away - but that doesn't mean she didn't bum rush her. ;)

Kirby didn't waste much time letting Laika know she was here first. And she was much, Much bigger. 

Once that was established, they got along swimmingly for the most part. 

The wee one is named after the first living creature to orbit Earth.  Launched on Sputnik II on November 3 of 1957, Laika was a stray dog that made the (ultimately fatal) error of hanging out 'round the Baikonour Cosmodrome. She was conscripted into service as the first cosmonaut. 

There are conflicting reports about how long Laika survived her flight. Some say it was days long and she was killed 'humanely' (via a gas or poisoned food) in flight. However, that seems super doubtful reading other accounts. It might have been more like a matter of minutes or hours.  

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: Marvelous Curiosity continues to amaze. Here is a photo (courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) taken at three different distances by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). It's nested close-ups of the Rock named Jake Matijevic. 

Here's a long(er) distance shot of the same rock, taken on Sept. 19th (the mission's 43rd Martian day).

The rock is about 10 inches tall and 16 inches wide, and it was deemed a suitable target for the first use of Curiosity's contact instruments on a rock. 

I couldn't help but wonder about the rock's name, and so through the magic of the Internets, I learned it was named for a man who was the surface operations systems chief engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory Project and the project's Curiosity rover. Matijevic  (1947-2012) was also a leading engineer for all of the previous NASA Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity. What an amazing body of work. 


The color image was taken at three different distances on Sept. 23. Jake Matijevic was chosen as a target because, per a NASA press release "it allowed the science team to compare results of the

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument and the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, both of which provide information about the chemical elements in a target."

The ChemCam, as you might remember, is the super cool tool that shoots laser pulses at a target from the top of the rover's mast. Awesome! Hope there's video of the laser shots soon!

LEAFY GREENS: Today the kids finished all their outside class homework for the week. They did a little extra credit for their science class, making some prints by applying paint to the backside of leaves. 

Annabelle (correctly) noted that all of the leaves they collected and used today had a pinnate vein patterns.

What a Weekend

FISHERMEN'S FESTIVAL: On Saturday morning we headed to the base of our hill for what has become one of our favorite annual events, the Fishermen's Fall Festival. 

It's the day when Fishermen's Terminal, home of the North Pacific Fishing Fleet (including many of "The Deadliest Catch" boats) turns into a quasi carnival, complete with games, art and education stations.

Above, CJ and Annabelle are seen building boats. Over the years their designs have become a bit more sophisticated and their hammering a bit better.

They also made some colorful prints made by painting latex sea creatures and rubbing paper over the wet paint. And they made some clay sea creatures perched on scallop shells.

They also always look forward to the spin art booth, where they customize spinning Frisbees with squirts of paint.

The highlight of the festival, however, is always the live trout pond. Some super hungry trout are packed into a pretty small area and kids throw in baited hooks which are almost instantaneously chomped on by the fish. CJ caught one so quickly, I didn't even get a shot of him. Annabelle's fish stole the bait the first time. The second hungry fish wasn't so lucky.

The kids are given the choice of catch and release or keep. Both CJ and Annabelle (at the coaxing of their fish loving father) kept their catch. Christian had them for dinner. Mmm Mmm good.  

STARS IN OUR EYES: On Sunday, we attended a phenomenal event at The Museum of Flight: The Wings of Heroes gala panel discussion and book signing. On the agenda were two stellar panels of space flight superstars. 

The morning's panel featured:

• Buzz Aldrin - NASA astronaut, Apollo 11 -- First manned moon landing, Gemini 12
• Jerry Bostick - NASA mission controller for Apollo 13 and other moon program missions, shuttle program deputy manager
• Milton Windler - NASA mission controller for Apollo 13 and other moon program missions, Skylab, space shuttle
• Gerald Carr - NASA astronaut, Skylab 4 (1974)
• Owen Garriott - NASA astronaut, Skylab 3 (1973), shuttle mission STS-9 (1983)
• Jack Lousma - NASA astronaut, Skylab 3 (1973), shuttle mission STS-3 (1982)

Below are Aldrin, Bostick and Windler as the panel took the stage.

We heard some remarkable stories from these men.

Buzz opened the show by reading an excerpt from an upcoming book he's publishing with National Geographic in May of 2013. Before reading it, Buzz confessed, "I don't know how to write very well," so he finds someone who can put his stories down on paper. 

The passage is from the book's final chapter and it's called "The Clarion Call." 

Aldrin said he believes it's human's destiny to explore and expand into and settle into the universe, and he called for a "rekindling of the American spirit" to re-start the passion for the space exploration program. 

Aldrin said youngsters are often told, "The world is yours," but said he believes the more correct statement is "The worldS are yours. ... Earth isn't the only world for us anymore," he declared. Rather, it's time to think about "homesteading our solar system," he suggested.

Buzz said he was a reader of sci fi books as a child and young man, and back then man hadn't left the planet, so he and others "had to bank on imagination." 

Buzz said, "Every time I gaze at the moon, I feel like I'm on a time machine." And he realizes that while only a handful of men have stood on the moon, the men of Apollo 11 felt like "the entire world took that journey with us." 

Aldrin also spoke at length about Neil Armstrong, and what a remarkable man he was. He said there was "global mourning" at the news of Armstrong's death. Buzz said he had been looking forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 with Armstrong and that "it never occurred to me that our commander might be the first of us to pass on. ... He was the best pilot I ever knew," Buzz declared. "He was soft spoken and reserved and advocated quietly for space exploration, behind the scenes." 

Seems to me Aldrin and Armstrong were kind of Yin and Yang. 

CJ was one of a handful of people who got to ask a question of the panel after the presentation. He asked Buzz Aldrin if he'd like to go on a mission to Mars.

Earlier, Aldrin had shared that he and Neil Armstrong disagreed about what NASA's next big mission should be. Armstrong favored a return to the moon, while Aldrin is advocating for Mars. (Buzz did later say he wouldn't be against "mining the moon ... and selling the water to the Chinese to drink." Yowza.)

Despite recommending NASA have the Red Planet in their sites, Aldrin told CJ and the crowd that in college he was a sprinter and a pole vaulter and duration events weren't his gig. Interesting. 

This is the second time we've been lucky enough to see Aldrin in Seattle. This man is a spitfire wrapped in barbed wire. Definitely one of a kind. 

Today marked the first time we've been in the presence of Sky Lab astronauts. It was a pleasure to hear and meet Gerald Carr. 

While a panelist, he answered a question about the key to the future for students today and he said, "Education!" without hesitation. Carr noted that the University of Washington is part of the NASA Space Grant Consortium and that some students there benefit from Astronaut Scholarship Foundation funds. Carr, and the other panelists, are staunch advocates of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. 

Carr said one of the things he took away from his time in space and "looking down at the Earth and seeing the beauty of it" is that "we need to take care of our planet."

At that, former Mission Controller Jerry Bostick noted that "some of them didn't get it," and said (paraphrasing) that some astronauts were really just worker bees, not looking at the big picture of where they were.

Bostick's gigs included Apollo 13, so it was super cool CJ and Annabelle were able to meet him so soon after watching the movie "Apollo 13." 

Bostick said he hopes the "desire for people to keep looking over the hill" will keep our space program going. "It's almost a spiritual thing ... a dream we have to keep alive." 

Carr said that using the stars for navigation in space is a challenge "because it's not what you're used to seeing." On Earth humans are familiar with bright stars and familiar constellations, but up on space "the soup of stars gets a lot thicker." 

After the panel, Carr was happy to smile for the camera for a photo with the kids (over Annabelle's shoulder). Too bad the kids weren't as "on" as the astronaut. ;)

Jack Lousma was a hoot. He make more than one crack alluding to the fact that he was more fighter pilot than rocket scientist. 

He's a Michigan grand and a USMC-trained pilot.  He was a member of the second manned crew on Skylab (1973) and commanded the third space shuttle mission (STS-3).

Lousma said he and his crewmates "found all kinds of ways to make excuses" to extend their extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), or spacewalks. "We'd make more work to do," and extend the EVA to the maximum 6 hours. Having experienced both Skylab and STS missions, Lousma said he favored the former, explaining, "I'd rather spend two months on a duration mission than 8 days on a camping trip on the shuttle."

Also on the panel was Milton Windler, a flight director for Apollo 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15.  

We enjoyed hearing from astronaut Owen Garriott. He's a smart dude and uses big words. I like that. :) He's a PhD, with a degree in electrical engineering and he's an Air Force pilot. Garriott spent 60 days aboard Skylab in 1972, and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 on a space shuttle mission in 1983. Garriott said much of his time aboard Skylab was spent studying the corona of the sun. 

In doing a little reading about Garriott after we got home, it was interesting to learn that his son, Richard, was the founder of Ultima video games. That made Richard a mint, and he went on to become one of just 7 (mega wealthy) space tourists to fly to the ISS. So both father and son are astronauts, though their paths were QUITE different. 

One of the things Garriott talked about was repairs he helped perform on Skylab, when its hull was damaged after take off on May 14, 1973, making radiation a problem for those on board. In just a few short days, NASA gurus came up with a solution - a space age parasol of sorts, 24 square feet in size. The fix was sent up to Skylab on May 28. Garriott called the problem-to-solution process "NASA's finest 10 days."

Bostick noted that while robots certainly have their place in space, In a situation such as the Skylab crisis, "It takes eyes and hands of humans to (fix) it." 

Christian had a chance to ask the panel a question. It was about sleep, and not the mechanics of it, but if the astronauts' dreams changed while they were in space. 

Garriott noted that the medical folks on ground could tell when the astronauts were dreaming, due to electrodes hooked to their head. Garriott said his sleep - the amount of REM, specifically - was about the same. 

Carr said he found he needed less sleep in space, about 7 hours instead of the 8 NASA prescribed. He also shared that on Day 53 in space, in his dreams he was no longer walking, but floating from place to place. Fascinating. 

Lousma said that he and other astronauts experienced flashes in their eyes when they were trying to sleep. "They would streak and explode ... like a fireworks display before you sleep." 

After researching the phenomenon, scientists determined that these flashes were actually cosmic particles passing through the shell of the spacecraft and right through the astronauts themselves. "They'd hit your retina and cause flashes of light." On Earth, the  Van Allen Belt protects us from such particles. 

Seeing all these Skylab astronauts inspired some Magnadoodle art from Annabelle.

The afternoon brought out the cosmonauts! And not just any cosmonauts, but a couple of absolute legends. The 1 p.m. panel:

• Alexey Leonov - Cosmonaut, Voskhod 2 (1965 - the first human to ever spacewalk!), Soyuz 19/Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975)
• Valery Kubasov - Cosmonaut, Soyuz 6 (1969), Soyuz 19/Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1975), Soyuz 36/Salyut-6 space station (1980)
• Charles Simonyi - Spaceflight participant, Soyuz TMA-10, 9 (2007), 14 and 13 (2009).
• Sy Liebergot - NASA flight controller for missions including Apollo 13 and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
• Glynn Lunney - NASA mission controller for Apollo 13 and other moon program missions, manager of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and shuttle program

The room was absolutely rapt listening to Leonov's stories. He spoke mostly in Russian, with his daughter serving as his translator.

He shared a harrowing account about his spacewalk during Voskhod 2, the first human to perform an extra vehicular activity (EVA).  He was damn near killed in a number of ways during the event. First, when he exited the vehicle the pressure inside his suit caused it to expand so dramatically that his hands and feet came out of the gloves and boots. He had to manually let air out via a hose (definitely NOT standard operating procedure) and then when he made his way back to his ship, his suit was still too big and he couldn't get back in. He struggled mightily, and said he was sweating so profusely he was blind. He finally miraculously made it back. 

Alexey also spent some time speaking fondly of NASA astronaut Tom Stafford, whom he met through the Apollo-Soyuz mission. It was the final flight of the Apollo program was the first spaceflight in which spacecraft from different nations docked in space. It was July of 1975 when the U.S. Apollo spacecraft carrying a crew of three docked with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with its crew of two. Alexey recounted how communication was difficult at first. The Soviets had learned English, and the Americans had learned Russian, but the Soviets did not speak Stafford's language, which Alexey called "Oklahomish." 

The work-around? The cosmonauts spoke English, the astronauts spoke Russian and then everyone could communicate. Alexey stressed that there was "never any problem" when Americans and Soviets were working together in space during the Cold War. In a booming voice and in English he declared, "TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER."

I can't really even put into words how awesome it was to meet those cosmonauts. The way Alexey shared the story of Yuri Gagarin’s death in a routine training mission was spellbinding. He was getting very emotional, and his daughter, who was translating, was fighting back tears. Yuri was a good friend of his, and I think Alexey has spent the last three plus decades trying to clear his friend's name in the cause of the crash.

It's an interesting culture in the Russian space program, and very different from the NASA culture, from what I gathered.  It sounds like there isn’t as much camaraderie and common goal/teamwork between cosmonauts and their engineers.  What it sounds like is the cosmonauts are sometimes treated like second tier, and the engineers ALWAYS blame them when something goes wrong, though it's more often than not an engineering mistake.

It was also fascinating to learn about the differences in spacecraft design between the Soviet and NASA space programs.  One of the NASA engineers Sy Liebergot, who worked on the ground breaking Apollo-Soyuz mission where two nations with otherwise pretty frosty relations worked closely together and docked in space.  Liebergot said the first time a cosmonaut saw one of our capsules they asked what the heck all the switches are for. In the Soviet crafts, most everything was controlled on the ground. He described it as Soviet spacecraft were designed "man out" of loop, while NASA craft are "man in."

The second cosmonaut on the panel was Valery Kubasov. In his opening remarks he reminded us all know that he was in space before Apollo. :) He also noted he was the first to weld metal in space. Interesting. 

Valery spoke eloquently about just how important the Apollo-Soyuz mission was, and how important it was in the history of our nations' relations and to the world. 

Kubasov told a funny story about returning from the Apollo-Soyuz mission and being met by his frowning 4-year-old son. The young child asked, "Why didn't you bring me any toys or gum?" 

Kubasov explained that he went to space. His son replied, "Don't they have toys or gum up there?" Kubasov told him there was neither there and his son asked, "Why did you fly there then?"

Kubasov said the question was both naive and intelligent. Why DO people fly to space?

Kubasov said that during that mission "we tested docking and technology" and it was "a huge accomplishment for mankind. ... Astronauts and cosmonauts, working together in harmony." 

It was an honor to get to hear their stories and something we'll all remember forever.

After the panel concluded, a few of the panelists sat and signed books.

We got to chat with Bostick, Carr, Glynn, . They were all super nice to the kids.

Right next to where the space guys were signing was parked an historic car.

It's a 1964 Lincoln Continental limo which was built at the request of the Vatican to carry Pope Paul VI through New York city to address the United Nations. It was built in a span less than two weeks from time or order to delivery for the parade on Oct 5, 1965.

The car was subsequently used for ferrying Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, Apollo 13 and 15 astronauts in ticker tape parades through New York City. It was sold at auction last summer (pre-auction estimates stated its value at $250,000 plus). Not sure who owns it now, but it was sure fun to see it Sunday!

The only real disappointment of the day was that Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who was slated to fly on Apollo 13 but got scratched at the last minute, was a no show. His absence wasn't explained. When they removed his name placard from the table, the man sitting to my right said, "Oh no! Ken Mattingly's not coming." 

I couldn't help but say, "I heard he has the measles." 

The man laughed heartily. Ah, space nerd humor. 

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: This weekend marked the debut of the space shuttle trainer at The Museum of Flight.

Formerly located in Texas, it's a 1:1 size mock up of the shuttle and every astronaut who flew a shuttle mission trained in it, we're told. We only ran through it on Sunday, between panels. We'll certainly be spending more time inside it on future visits to the museum.