In March of 1964, Dick Gordon first set foot in Morehead Planetarium for training, coming back six other times over the next four years. He worked with trainers in Morehead’s dome and classrooms, learning how to align his spacecraft with the stars. This training aided him in piloting Gemini 11 and eventually circling the Moon asContinue reading “Astronaut Dick Gordon has died”
Category Archives: Morehead
Weekend Star Flights
Next week, I travel to California and will experience two cosmically-driven institutions: Griffith Observatory and The Museum of Planetarium Projectors (above, courtesy Owen Phairis). Three planetariums engaged in astronaut training. Morehead was the trailblazer and chief among them, claiming all but one of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts on our list alumni, with fifteenContinue reading “Weekend Star Flights”
Under the Dome Again
In April, Jonathan Frederick, Michael Frederick, and I ate lunch at Top of the Hill with Captain Jim Lovell (above, center). Jim Lovell was the commander of Apollo 13, CMP on Apollo 8, and astronaut on both Gemini 7 and Gemini 12. Upon my recommendation, Captain Lovell had the Lizard Chips, a spicy and tangyContinue reading “Under the Dome Again”
A Big Boost for my Morehead Planetarium Books
Todd Boyette (above, far right) is Director of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. Today, he sent me a memorandum of understanding regarding my writing projects. It may not sound particularly exciting, but what it says is this: I have his, and MPSC’s, full support on my research and writing projects. The support even includes fundingContinue reading “A Big Boost for my Morehead Planetarium Books”
Under Carolina Skies
Yesterday, I spent time with Jim Horn, the man who was hired to maintain the Zeiss VI planetarium star projector you see above. (This is a photo I took in 1994 in the Morehead Planetarium star theater.) Jim shared with me dozens of slides, pictures, and artifacts he’d been given or that were trash-bound butContinue reading “Under Carolina Skies”