I drove him to Stanford for our talks, and it was his first time experiencing Tesla FSD. His wife Dotty was delighted and took video from the back. Quite an honor to give the first autopilot experience to an Apollo astronaut!
I found my notes from his dinner address to the Berkeley Innovation Forum the prior night:
"During the countdown, i kept thinking ‘please continue.’
At takeoff, the rumble was a surprise.
We almost didn’t land. The final decision from mission control to go for landing was made on the last possible lunar orbit to make it to our landing site.
Every Apollo astronaut loved Mission Control; they saved every mission.
The surface of the moon was 230°F. The family photo started curling up before my eyes, so I quickly took a photo of it.
Earth rise looked like jewel suspended in space.
The Shuttle era did not have the same dynamic. It was frustrating. We had to wait a month between meetings to discuss brakes on plane.
1975 very tense; she was on edge of suicide. I was a strong dad, beating perfectionism into my son. We were heading to divorce. [then they found religion and credit it for their turnaround]
I was an identical twin. Until 10th grade, he wanted to be doctor and I wanted to go to military academy. There was a lower standard for astigmatism for the Air Force back then.
I took the F104 to 100k feet with a 45 degree climb over Edwards. My favorite was the delta wing interceptor with 6 missiles.
I’m still qualified to fly in space. But NASA is saying ‘don’t call us; we’ll call you.’"
Q about SpaceX and commercial space: "At first I wasn’t behind it, but now I am all for it."
Leave a Reply