Our February speaker, Jonathan Ward, is no stranger to FAS club members.
Previously he delighted us with 3D images of Mars, and led us on an exploration of Saturn through images returned by the Cassini spacecraft. Jonathan is currently working on a book entitled “All Systems Go!” about the largely-forgotten people of Kennedy Space Center and the work that that they did. During the heyday of the Apollo era, more than 24,000 men and women worked at Kennedy Space Center. Under an impossibly short time frame, they built the facilities and tested and launched the spacecraft that would carry 24 American astronauts to the Moon and back. His February presentation to will show us behind-the-scenes shots of facilities and people as they prepared and launched America’s moon rockets. He’ll share with us some of the stories of the technicians and engineers, their near-misses, and successes. He will also bring in examples of what was then cutting edge technology, including actual control panels from the Launch Control Center. Join us at 7:30PM on the 25th for a peek inside one of the most important scientific endeavors of the last century.