1997 Astronaut Scholar Annual Meeting
During the first weekend in May 1997, nineteen Astronaut Scholars and their guests came together in Orlando for a whirlwind of events. They were treated to a VIP tour of Kennedy Space Center (KSC), a night on the town in Orlando with dinner and a visit to Disney's Pleasure Island nighttime entertainment complex, and a luncheon meeting at the beautiful Peabody Orlando resort hotel with eight astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs at the beautiful Peabody Orlando resort hotel.
The VIP tour of KSC consisted of a walk-through of the mammoth vehicle assembly building transfer aisle, a tour of the Air Force Museum outdoor rocket and aircraft display, a tour of the blockhouses used during the Mercury program redstone rocket launches, the closest possible drive-by tour of a space shuttle launch pad, a visit to the new Saturn V center, a visit to the Mercury 7 monument site, and a tour of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame/U.S. Space Camp complex.
The tour was graciously hosted by Mr. Charlie Buckley, former chief of security at the Kennedy Space Center during the early astronaut programs, and Ms. Sue Dickinson, an environmental engineer at NASA. Their combined commentary throughout the tour added to the experience, especially Charlie's remembrances of historic and little-known events during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs as well as the antics of the Mercury 7 astronauts.
That night, the Scholars met for dinner and then visited Disney's Pleasure Island, taking in music, comedy, and dancing at several nightclubs.
The following day, the Astronaut Scholars, their guests, the astronauts, and other distinguished members of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation were able to meet and mingle during a reception and luncheon. It was quite a thrill for everyone, scholars and astronauts alike, to meet each other. The Scholars were able to meet their heroes and ask the questions that they had wondered about for so long. The astronauts were able to witness, first hand, the high level of talent and intelligence as well as congeniality of the Astronaut Scholars. It was fantastic to see evidence of the good work that the Foundation is doing, as the Scholars were able to tell their benefactors in person what the scholarship has meant to them. It served as inspiration to continue the scholarship program and support alumni activities to ensure personal involvement of our scholarship winners in the future of the Foundation.
As much fun as we had, one of the best aspects of the 1997 meeting was the opportunity for scholars to meet each other, discuss common technical interests, and network.