The Astronaut Maker

BY GEORGE: Saturday afternoon, we took advantage of our close proximity to the world-class Museum of Flight, and zipped over there for a super special presentation.

I'll have CJ go ahead and tell you a bit more about it.

On December 8th, 2018, the Museum of Flight held an event with George W. S. Abbey, best known as the former Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, as well as a Senior Fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute. The event was in promotion of a biography of Abbey, The Astronaut Maker, written by Michael Cassutt, who himself is best known as a former writer for The Twilight Zone and Max Head. The event began at 2 P.M, and was moderated by aerospace consultant Roger Myers. Most of the demonstration consisted of Myers asking Abbey questions about his time in NASA, and involvement with historic programs (especially Apollo and the Space Shuttles). 

Toward the end of the presentation, the people on stage started taking questions from the audience. I got to ask Abbey what the most difficult or frustrating mission to work on was for him. Abbey replied that the "political missions" were by far the most frustrating for him to work on. If I recall correctly, he said that they were the most frustrating to work on because he felt like he had less control over their outcomes, and the politicians forcing the missions often lacked important knowledge about space exploration.

CJ's write up is short on details, IMHO. The ninety minute panel was absolutely fascinating. A living repository of aerospace history, Abbey pretty much talked his way from the Air Force's Dyna-Soar space program of the 1950s, through Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the space shuttle era.

The jacket of The Astronaut Maker notes Abbey had a 37 year career in aerospace, and that he was personally responsible for the selection of every astronaut class between 1978 and 1987. (During those years, he helped diversify NASA's astronauts, including recruiting and hiring numerous women and minorities.)

We learned Abbey is a local guy. He was born in Seattle. His mother worked at Boeing during World War II, when his dad was off fighting in World War II. (Abbey's dad, an immigrant, also fought in World War I, for the Canadian army.)

Abbey's recollection of details was remarkable. I felt like it was a privilege to be able to sit there in that theater and listen to him relate stories that are such an important part of spaceflight - and world - history, from the launch of Sputnik to Kennedy's assassination and how that affected the space program. 

After the presentation, we picked up the book. It should make for fascinating reading.

TREES: On our way out of The Museum of Flight, we had to stop and admire their spaced-out Christmas tree.

We also got our vintage aluminum tree up on Saturday. 

GAMERS: We've been playing a different board game pretty much every day for quite awhile. One that's pretty new to us is Nefarious The Mad Scientist Game.  A strategy game by Donald X. Vaccarino, the game involves building inventions which is a process requiring research, work, and espionage. 

We got it at Value Village a couple of weeks back. I wasn't a fan at first, but after we got the hang of it, we have declared it pretty engaging, with a nice mix of skill and luck involved, plus enough twists to keep it interesting through multiple plays.