NOVA

[BarryBobPosthole]

If you have time this week, watch the NOVA episode on PBS about Neil Armstrong.

What an American!

BKB

[Thumper]

Oh ... I thought you were calling out the Virginia yuppie contingent.

[BarryBobPosthole]

No, if I was talkng about them I'd have titled it NAMBLA.

BKB

[DeputyDog]

Did any of you know that Purdue has the distinction of it's alumni being the first and last men to walk on the moon?

After their disappointing tournament I have to come up with something good to say about it.

Purdue has produced 23 astronauts who have flown in space on 56 missions including 35%!of the shuttle missions. Purdue alumni made up 2/3 of the ill-fated crew of Apollo 1 with Gus Grissom and Roger Chafee.

[Chicken Dinner]

No, if I was talkng about them I'd have titled it NAMBLA. BKB

Only two things come from Oklahoma...

[BarryBobPosthole]

Did any of you know that Purdue has the distinction of it's alumni being the first and last men to walk on the moon?

After their disappointing tournament I have to come up with something good to say about it.

Purdue has produced 23 astronauts who have flown in space on 56 missions including 35%!of the shuttle missions. Purdue alumni made up 2/3 of the ill-fated crew of Apollo 1 with Gus Grissom and Roger Chafee.

That's something I did not know but I'll file it away for the next trivia game I’m in. I figured since Armstrong came from Ohio that he went to school there. Purdue must have a heckuva aeronautical engineering program I guess.

BKb

[DeputyDog]

Yep they do. One of its earliest people worked with the Wright brothers and taught Billy Mitchell how to fly. In the '30's, Amelia Earhart was an instructor and one of the female dorms in named after her.

Purdue has been called the "cradle of astronauts" for good reason. Twenty-two Purdue graduates have been selected for space travel, including the first and last astronauts to walk on the moon, and two of the six American astronauts who have served on board Mir, the Russian space station. Purdue alumni have flown on about 37 percent of all human U.S. space flights. More than 40 space shuttle flights have had Purdue alumni on board. Many other Purdue graduates work for NASA and in the space industry. Purdue alumnus Gregory Harbaugh, a veteran of four space flights, flew on the second Hubble servicing mission in 1997 and has logged more than 18 EVA hours. He also was backup EVA crewman working in mission control during the first Hubble servicing mission.
Before the word "astronaut" was commonly accepted and used in the English language, four future "astronauts" walked the sidewalks and paths of Purdue heading to their engineering classes: Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and Roger Chaffee. Grissom was one of America's first seven astronauts; Armstrong and Cernan were the first and last people, respectively, to step foot on the moon; and Chaffee was a crew member of what was designated as the first Apollo mission.
William J. O'Neil, a 1961 graduate who received an honorary doctorate for his work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was manager of the Galileo project that sent a spacecraft to Jupiter and its moons in 1995. He also had been a major player in missions to the moon and Mars. He was named an Aviation Week & Space Technology laureate for Project Galileo's delivery to Jupiter and received several NASA awards, including the NASA Group Achievement Award and an Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work as navigation chief of the Viking Project – the first U.S. mission to Mars.
Purdue graduate Cliff Turpin helped the Wright brothers redesign their engine and controls starting in 1908. Orville Wright taught him to fly and he traveled the nation as part of the Wright Flight Exhibition Team. A Purdue graduate taught Billy Mitchell to fly. Mitchell commanded all U.S. air combat units in France during World War I. Cliff Turpin taught Henry "Hap" Arnold to fly. Arnold was commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Wow. That's somethng else.

BkB