Tag Archive

Amazing Encounters – Apollo 13′s Fred Haise

Published on November 6, 2014 By SpaceKate

You’ve seen the film, you know the dramatic story, but meeting one of the members of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission is something else. Ken Willoughby and the Space Lectures team secured Apollo 13 Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise as their guest of honour in Pontefract for the final weekend of October. We all came […]

Ken Mattingly – Apollo’s humble hero

Published on April 21, 2014 By SpaceKate

“I would encourage you to understand that the people that made Apollo happen, are not here” says Ken Mattingly, self-effacingly. “There wasn’t an airplane big enough” he adds with a wry smile. Mattingly, command module pilot of Apollo 16 and two-time shuttle astronaut, has come to Pontefract to talk to us thanks to the hard […]

Tim Peake Speaks! (At the British Interplanetary Society)

Published on February 26, 2013 By SpaceKate

It was a wet February evening as I set out to hear British astronaut Maj Timothy Peake address a packed house at the British Interplanetary Society (BIS). Introduced as the first truly British non-commercial astronaut, a subtle smile creeps onto his face when it is mentioned that the UK government is paying for him though […]

Inspiring People: Paolo Nespoli, ESA astronaut

Published on May 10, 2012 By SpaceKate

Paolo Nespoli was the first astronaut I ever met, and as well being completely wide-eyed at the fact I was talking to an astronaut, I was also quickly won over by his easygoing style of communication. He didn’t make me feel silly for asking the same questions he must have answered at least one hundred times […]