Posted on 01/08/2024 10:47:07 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. -- Monday morning, the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972 will launch from Cape Canaveral, and one longtime Madison resident will be on it.
Paul Wertsch and his wife Kay Heggestad always loved space.
"Kay especially was a Star Trek person," Paul said. "We went down to Cape Canaveral, watched a lot of rockets."
In fact, Paul remembers watching the first ever moon landing with Kay by his side.
"She and I were both medical students, and we were doing a rotation up in Rhinelander, Wisconsin," Paul said. "I can remember being in the physician's lounge watching this little TV and seeing the moon landing. That was wonderful. But again, it was this small little black and white TV, as I recall it that you couldn't see it very well."
Now, more than 50 years later, NASA, with a little help from some commercial ventures, is heading back to the moon, and this time Kay won't have to watch the landing on a grainy TV screen. She'll have a front row seat, whether she likes it or not.
"I'm not sure if Kay would have agreed with it, but, you know, she was gone, so what the heck?" Paul said.
Kay died of cancer in 2017, not knowing that seven years later, she'd be on her way to explore the final frontier herself.
"My son discovered that there was a company that was going to be sending ashes up to the moon for the first time," Paul said. "And so he talked me into going along and we got her a ride on that."
The company, Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic, created the lunar lander called Pelegrine that will take Kay and 69 others' ashes to the moon. The launch is a collaboration between NASA and Boeing and Lockheed Martin's commercial venture called United Launch Alliance.
"It has ashes of 70 people, including some notable ones," Paul said. "Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and his wife are on there, and then Lieutenant Uhura and Scotty's ashes are on there, a few astronauts and a couple of authors."
Paul and his family will be watching the launch together early Monday morning. If everything goes to plan, it's set to take off around 1 am and will make it to the moon by February 23.
"Now the trouble is, I've watched enough rocket launches and they don't always go up when they're supposed to," Paul said.
But hey, if you shoot for the moon, at least you'll land among the stars.
"The thought of looking up on the moon and actually seeing where Kay is, her ashes are sitting up there, that was kind of neat," Paul said.
Not any more....Mission has failed...
They were afraid of that happening.
Did it blow up real good?
The lander has an issue with leaking fuel which is causing it to not be able to reliably point its solar panels at the Sun for power, and will leave it with no fuel for the landing.
I thought this was going to be about Audrey Meadows.
No propellent and positional problems...accessing what to do but its toast
Lost In Space
UPS, Uber or Domino’s.
LOL.
Mission has failed. Probably out of fuel. They are getting more ‘space’ than they bargained for...............
Gee whiz...if we only had a space program...it might be feasible to retrieve the payload(s).
Not any more....Mission has failed...
________________
That’s what they get for trying to haul up human ashes before clearing it with the natives.
They should send all of Madison’s filthy democrats to the moon.
To be fair, this launch was a private venture.
ULA (Boeing and Lockheed) provided the boost into orbit, but Astrobotic built the lander.
LOL! That would be one huge payload! Smelly, too. ;)
I instructed my survivors to add my ashes to the closest cement truck pour in the closest government building project so I can actually get something in the way of services for the fees collected from me for 60 years. My brand proved to be of not much value.
Understood, but...gee whiz...if we only had a space program...it might be feasible to retrieve the payload(s).
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