The Space Page

Welcome to The Space Page!

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork -- Psalm 19:1

Hello, and welcome to my space page! I hope you enjoy what you see here. Please email me and tell me what you think! I first became interested in space back in January of 1995. We had taken a trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston the month before, and even though it hadn't really been too interesting to me at that time, the seed was planted! One evening in January, my parents and I were sitting in a drive-in fast food shop (Sonic, if you must know <G>) and we watched the full moon rise above the trees. I absentmindedly made a remark about wondering if anyone was walking on the moon, and my Dad answered with "Oh, no one has walked on the moon in years!"

I was surprised, but didn't think too much about it until a few weeks later. We went to a bookstore and my Mom told me she wanted to look for this certain book for me, that she had just heard about. Turns out it was the book "Moon Shot" by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton! As soon as I opened the book, I was hooked, and of course one book led to another, and I began collecting postcards and such, of the moon-landings. At this time, I have one whole book shelf (about 5 feet wide) crammed full of books, magazines and a huge notebook which has all my postcards, patches, drawings, and pictures, plus the video cabinet has a bunch of tapes of the moon landings and other space travel.

What I would really want to do is see a real, live launch of a Saturn V rocket, instead of video. Nothing compares with being there, or so I'm told by people who have witnessed a live Saturn V launch! :)

That's enough about me, now let me show you my memorabilia!

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This is my first autographed astronaut picture. Dave Brown was selected as an astronaut in 1996, and we met him in 1998. He was very friendly and easy to talk to! His first spaceflight was STS-107, on the shuttle Columbia. It launched January 16th, 2003. They had a flawless mission and then 16 minutes before the shuttle was due to land in Florida, on February 1st, 2003, the shuttle broke apart while coming through the atmosphere. There were no survivors.

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The STS-107 Crew (I took this picture from another site)

L. to R.: Dave Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon.

• You will find links to news about the shuttle Columbia in the link section at the bottom of this page. •

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This is John young. I videotaped him at JSC in August, 1998. He gave a speech and showed some slides, but did not speak to anyone personally. John Young flew on Gemini 3, Gemini 10, around the moon on Apollo 10, and walked on the moon in Apollo 16 with Charlie Duke! He also commanded the first space shuttle flight on shuttle Columbia (STS-1) and flew on STS-9/Spacelab 1.

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My first autographed astronaut book! Charlie Duke walked on the moon with John Young in April, 1972

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My next autographed astronaut book! Gene Cernan Flew on Gemini 9, around the moon (with John Young) on Apollo 10, and walked on the moon with Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17, in December, 1972.

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This one is my pride and joy! James Lovell flew on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, around the moon in Apollo 8, and was the commander of Apollo 13. Fred Haise flew with Jim Lovell on Apollo 13. These are the real men of Apollo 13, not actors :)

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This is astronaut Ken Cockrell. We met him at a school on "Soaring Skyward" day. He has flown on 5 shuttle missions so far (STS-56, STS-69, STS-80, STS-98, and STS-111) We got our picture taken with him, and he gave us some autographs! A very nice guy, and brave too....you don't often find someone willing to come talk to, and answer questions from, a roomful of elementary schoolers! ;)

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Here's the picture of him with all of us (except my mom, who snapped the picture), along with his autograph. Sorry the picture is so dark, the auditorium was not very bright!

Next, you'll see some pictures that I took on our 1998 trip to JSC.

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This is the old Mission Control room. It was used up until 1996. It was such a neat feeling to be in the room that is shown on the videos we have, and to see everything up close! Look at those "dinosaur" computers!

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This is a parachute like the ones that the space shuttle uses to help it stop. It was quite long, as you can see - I almost couldn't fit the whole thing in the camera lens! Thank goodness for a panoramic camera! I am guessing that the parachute itself was about 15 feet tall.

Here's some pictures that I've found on the internet over the years, that I like. Don't worry, I got them off free graphics sites :)

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This is Edward White, performing the first American spacewalk! Sadly, Mr. White and two other astronauts, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, were killed in a horrendous spacecraft fire on January 27th, 1967.

19 years and 1 day after Apollo 1 burned, the space shuttle Challenger blew up during launch, January 28th, 1986. 17 years and 4 days after Challenger, the shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas during re-entry.

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