Lance Around Orlando

Grammy LanceAround Meets the Astronaut

Almost seven billion people inhabit the earth. That’s 7,000,000,000. Less than 500 of them have been to space.

One of the neatest things you can do in Orlando is the “Astronaut Encounter” at Kennedy Space Center. You have the opportunity to meet one of the unique individuals who belong to this exclusive club.

Jon A. McBride was a pilot on Space Shuttle mission STS 41-G in 1984. For 197 hours he experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every day on the shuttle Challenger. He was also scheduled to be commander of STS-61-E, but this flight was cancelled after the Challenger accident. When Young and Crippen flew the first shuttle mission in April 1981, Jon was the lead pilot in the front chase plane that guided them into a perfect landing.

Today Jon spoke at our monthly meeting for the Central Florida Vacation Rental Manager’s Association. This week he is the featured astronaut you can meet at the Kennedy Space Center. Grammy LanceAround came down from Pennsylvania to visit us. She took Number One Daughter to meet the astronaut at the CFVRMA meeting.

What question would you ask an astronaut if you had the opportunity? Our group had some fascinating questions.

Question: “Do you believe there is life out there?”

Answer: “Do you mean do I believe in ‘aliens?’ I think the only aliens I have ever seen are here on earth!”

Question: “What was the most exhilarating thing about your flight?”

Answer: “Like John Carpenter said after his Apollo flight, ‘the part between the lift off and the splashdown.'”

Question: “What was your motivation?”

Answer: “Well, we didn’t have astronauts when we were young, we had Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.”

# 1 Daughter with the Astronaut

Question: “Do you really believe Orion will be built and we will go back to the moon?”

Answer: “Yes, it’s just a question of when.”

Afterwards Number One Daughter ran up to Jon to get his picture and then had Grammy’s picture taken with him as well.

It’s the opportunity to meet people like Jon McBride that make the Kennedy Space Center one of the best attractions in the Orlando area for the well informed traveller looking for “more than a mouse.”®

This entry was posted on August 24, 2009 at 2:00 am and is filed under Major (Full Day) Attractions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.