Thanks for taking time out of your Saturday...

In anticipation of the upcoming 40th anniversay of the first moon landing, I read about this event the night before in a blog - Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter, Gemini and Apollo astronaut Thomas Stoffard, and Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan - the last man to walk on the moon were going to be giving a panel discussion at a nearby mall. My nine-year-old son Gareth's current ambition is to be an astronaut, so off we went to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa last Saturday.

OC Register article

Turned out I parked at the wrong mall - I had in mind the Crystal Court and it took place in the "Jewel Court" which is one small section of the original South Coast Plaza Mall. So we walked across the footbridge to the proper place which was already crowded and full. Luckily when the old guys came out, they asked all the kids to come up to front -you can see all three of the kids in many of the article's pictures, and Avalon is the one giving Thomas Stofffard a high five (she'd given Cernan one a moment previously).

All told stories about their part in the space program, narrating the accompanying slide show and video clips.

From left: Scott Carpenter, Thomas Stoffard, and Gene Cernan

Gareth got to shake their hands and asked Cernan, was any part of being on the moon scary? He replied that nothing was really hairy, but thinking about it beforehand was. Avalon asked Stoffard if they saw any satellites while they were up there, He replied not until the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Gareth is quoted in the article, although the OC Register intern talked to all of us. Gareth also swore he was never going to wash his hand again after shaking Gene Cernan's, and he'll never forget it.

Stoffard and Cernan talk to Avalon and Gareth.

Cernan must have done a lot of public speaking, because he was quite good at it. Some quotes and stories:

"Neil Armstrong was a good commander but he was a lousy navigator - so we had to paint a white line in the sky for him to follow."

The story about the "Beat Army" sign that appeared in the window of one of the Gemini capsules.

The Apollo-Soyuz mission, where after they met, shook hands and shared some food, a picture of two astronauts holding tubes with Russion lettering. "If you can read Russian, one says 'High-Grade Vodka' and the other is labelled 'standard vodka' - but when they opened them, they both contained only borscht.

Some videos posted here.

Interview with Scott Carpenter - "Honor Your Curiosity"

All in all, they were fascinating to listen to. They're all elderly now, but these stories never get old. They had a rapt audience in both the kids and adults.