Coincidences

For my birthday card this year, my sister, Connie, send me a card with this picture on the front:

The astronaut pictured is Bruce McCandless, a man I met back in 2010! Cool!

That year I was invited to attend the induction of my old office-mate, Guion (Guy) Bluford, into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center. I was last at that site in 1983, when Guy had his first launch aboard the STS-8 Challenger Shuttle.

Guy flew on three more missions, one conducting experiments for the USAF lab I was working for when I retired in 1993.

At Guy's induction ceremony, I was able to join the other astronauts as a VIP guest and had the privilege of sitting next to Bruce McCandless as we rode to an event! There were about 20 other astronauts who flew on everything from the Mercury capsule to the Shuttle and their guests on that bus as well. Quite an experience!

Bruce, also an inductee in the Hall of Fame in 2005, won the National Aeronautic Association Collier Trophy, one of the most prestigious awards in aviation, for his work testing the NASA MMU - Manned Maneuvering Unit in 1984 on STS-41-B. Basically, the MMU was a back-pack with small rockets that could be fired as needed to change the direction and velocity of the astronaut. Bruce was the first man to fly untethered in space, using the MMU to maneuver around the Shuttle. I asked him what that spacewalk felt like (like he had not been asked that thousands of times before) and he said "No amount of swimming would get me back!" He did say that the crew could maneuver the Shuttle to get to him if needed. Still that must have been an amazing experience.

Memories like that are a fabulous way to spend time on your birthday - Thanks, Connie!