Meeting Gene Kranz

Up in Oshkosh for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture 2015, I had the great privilege of having my photo taken with Mr. Gene Kranz – NASA Flight Director for several Apollo missions – including Apollo 13.

Now, I realize that my husband, the physicist/astronomer, probably would like to have had his photo taken with Mr. Kranz, but he allowed me the opportunity. Why?

Because this year I had the privilege of taking some photos that were used in the NASA and National Geographic educational materials for the new Imax movie Living in the Age of Airplanes narrated by the one and only Harrison Ford.

Rebecca Vieyra (there will be another blog on her soon!) and her team compiled educational supplements for pre-K through elementary grades. I am so impressed with the detail and types of hands-on activities that she put together. I encourage anyone with young children to look through the curricula – there are some wonderful learning opportunities and even a picture book included. This one is for NASA and this one is for National Geographic.

Sadly, I missed the Oshkosh AirVenture showing, but it soon will be showing in a theater close(ish) to me!

So, despite my artsy/English/lit nature, my science/techy/math husband took my photo with my Nikkon DSLR ~ and Mr. Kranz commented on how excited he was to see someone using a “real” camera! That made me laugh – but it is a memory I won’t soon forget – mostly because I was caught off-guard and the only thing I had for him to autograph was the insert of a button my four-year-old was making inside the Ford tent. So, I had him sign it, went to have it turned into a button, and told my four-year-old I would make another. Mommy is keeping this one … for a long time;)