An Interview with Author Steve Taranovich

Liberty Island Magazine ^ | 11/22/2020 | Tamara Wilhite

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Tamara Wilhite: You said that you interviewed people who worked on the Apollo program, both from NASA and Northrup Grumman. How were you able to meet with them? And how many are left?

Steve Taranovich: My journey began with the intent to write an article for publication on the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. After numerous phone calls, I traveled to Long Island, NY where I had lived for most of my life, and contacted the Grumman retirees group and the Cradle of Aviation Museum at which most of the Grumman retirees worked as docents.

This was the first time I was asked to write a book with their incredible stories. After many more phone calls later, my wife, Loretta (my photographer) and I took an epic road trip journey to New Mexico where the White Sands Test facility for rockets is based, the hills of Texas and on into Houston to meet a whole group of NASA retirees in their homes and in conference rooms at the University of Houston. The ones I interviewed totaled to 19. There are only a few handfuls more still around, who were involved in the Apollo program, such as in the NASA Alumni League at Houston.

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An Interview with Author Steve Taranovich
https://libertyislandmag.com/2020/11/22/an-interview-with-author-steve-taranovich/

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Thanks for posting.

One of my sons is an astronautical engineer at NASA. He does flight operations for an array of scientific satellites measuring earth magnetism (or something like that)

I think he’d like to read this book.

His interest in space began when he was five thanks to Buzz Lightyear. (he told my wife he wanted to work at NASA building rockets) Later, October Sky and The Right Stuff cemented his dream.

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We’ve watched “October Sky” with our kids.