So I saw earlier this week that the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center was having a fundraising event:

http://cosmo.org/newsroom/ne_nw_article.cfm?id=188

I knew I wouldn't be able to attend the dinner later tonight with the other astronauts,  but I did make time to head over to Hutchinson this morning for the book signing.    Buzz was going to be there signing copies of his new book, and I figured that it is not every day you have a chance to meet one of the guys that walked on the moon.

We got there early before the doors opened since they didn't have any more pre-orders for his book available.   I needed to make sure I snagged a copy since that was going to be the only thing he was signing.    After purchasing a couple copies of the book,  we toured the hall of space museum.   It's pretty impressive.  Probably the best collection of artifacts outside of the Smithsonian.     Aside from the big Saturn V,  it's got examples of almost all the same stuff that we saw at Kennedy Space Center down in Florida.   Highlights include actual Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules that were used in missions, an actual V1 buzz bomb and V2 rocket, Soviet Vostok and Soyuz capsules, lots of spacesuits, and a moon rock.   There was also one of two surviving "White Rooms",  basically the entry room that sat between the launch gantry and the command module on the Apollo missions.   There is also an SR-71, T-38, and a life size shuttle replica out in the lobby.    It's been almost 20 years since I've been out there, and they have really done a good job adding new stuff.   Almost all the Soviet stuff was new.  I think they were able to get their hands on a lot of cool stuff after the collapse of the USSR.     

After touring the museum,  we got in line for the 1pm signing around 10:45.   I knew it was going to be popular, so I wanted to make sure we were early in line and didn't get cut off at 3pm when the signing ended.   We were within the first 10 people or so, and ended up sitting there for about 2.5 hours.     I'm glad we were early, because the line was enormous.  I'm pretty sure some of the people towards the end were not going to get their books signed.     

I was hoping for a chance to get a picture with Buzz Aldrin, but they were really pushing everyone through.   Basically I just had time to hand my book to his helpers, they slid it over in front of Buzz, and then he signed it and handed it back.  With that many people waiting, I can understand that they would not have had time for everyone to get pictures.  My wife did snap a quick picture on her phone of him signing a book though.      I did enjoy the fact that he took the time to do a real signature instead of the usual quick scribble that most celebrities do when they give autographs.   Of course we were near the front of the line,  maybe those people a couple hours later were getting the quick scribble.   

I was hoping some of the other Apollo astronauts were going to be there too, but apparently they are only at the dinner event later tonight.




 

I wasn't around for the moon landings, the last one happened almost eight years before I was born.   Wish I could have seen it happen live.  What those guys accomplished in 1969 is truly amazing.    Unfortunately, we haven't done anything like that for a very long time.  It was sort of depressing seeing the cold war section at the museum,  Communism vs. Democracy, the space race, etc.   We beat them to the moon and the USSR may have collapsed, but we ended up electing a Communist less than 20 years later.      I'm beginning to wonder if we won the cold war after all.   

I wish I would have hurried through the museum a little more.   I think we just missed Buzz, Fred Haise (Apollo 13), Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7), and Dick Gordon (Apollo 12) .  They had a little private tour before the public was let in, and I think we just missed them at the Apollo section right at the end.  They were just turning the corner and heading out as we walked into the room.  There was a photo on Buzz's facebook page showing all of them in the Apollo gallery right before we came in there.  Would have been cool to see them all.       

I wish I would have hurried through the museum a little more.   I think we just missed Buzz, Fred Haise (Apollo 13), Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7), and Dick Gordon (Apollo 12) .  They had a little private tour before the public was let in, and I think we just missed them at the Apollo section right at the end.  They were just turning the corner and heading out as we walked into the room. 

I would've paid good money to have been a fly on the wall listening to that conversation.