Longtime Madison resident's remains to head to the moon (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.

"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.

"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.

"A spacecraft carrying a piece of technology developed by British scientists has run into trouble.

Peregrine Mission-1 is the first US rocket due to land on the Moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972, but it may now not be able to proceed.

The Astrobotic company behind the project says an ‘anomaly’ has stopped it from pointing its solar panels at the Sun, leaving it without the ability to charge its batteries.

I thought they learned their lesson with the first mars rover and the asteroid lander and would begin to use low level nuclear power for energy. (In addition to Solar arrays.)

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-science-heads-to-moon-on-first-us-private-robotic-artemis-flight/
"Peregrine is scheduled to land on the Moon on Friday, Feb. 23, and will spend approximately 10 days gathering valuable scientific data studying Earth’s nearest neighbor and helping pave the way for the first woman and first person of color to explore the Moon under Artemis. Learn more about NASA’s CLPS initiative at:

https://www.nasa.gov/clps"

There we go...advancing DEI that was the important thing, that and making Muslims feel better about themsellves! (Who is this Artemis person?? I shot a spacecraft into the air and where it lands I know not where!))

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.