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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

'Shoot for the Moon' in Chicago

Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell will be reunited with their Gemini 12 spacecraft Nov. 9 at Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. They will help dedicate a new permanent exhibit celebrating the 40th anniversary of their Gemini 12 mission.

The space capsule is the centerpiece of the planetarium's "Shoot for the Moon" exhibit on space exploration in the past and U.S. plans to return to the moon. The exhibit opens to the public Nov. 11.

The exhibit begins with "A Journey with Jim Lovell." It uses his personal space artifacts and his flights on four spaceship missions, including two moon missions.
In "Mission: Moon," visitors will learn about Apollo missions and the thrills and dangers of exploring space.

Source: www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/COLUMNISTS17/610290326/-1/ZONES04

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[stargazer]

Joe

Get me an autograph of both please. Would love it on a pic of each one. Let me know if you can do this.

PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Becks,

As much as I like to please the membership, No, sorry Becks, this request no can do.

It will be tough enough trying to cover the event for the Chicago Astronomer with the media controls in place - and most astronauts do not sign anything anymore anyway with the advent of Ebay - and the profiteers that abound. Spoils it for everyone.

I'll write up a good story on the day.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Astronauts launch new space exhibit

Two of America's more famous astronauts, James Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, are in Chicago this week to help christen a new exhibit at the Adler Planetarium.

Lovell will be remembered as the man portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie of the hair-raising flight of Apollo 13. Aldrin as "The Second Man on the Moon.''

But the men, both 78, said they consider their four-day Gemini XII mission special.

The new Adler show, called "Shoot for the Moon,'' opens to the public on Saturday. At its center is the refurbished tin can in which Aldrin and Lovell rocketed into space on Nov. 11, 1966.

With both astronauts gripping their ejection seat levers, the car-sized capsule rattled from the pressure. The noise, Aldrin recalled, sounded "like a subway train."

For Aldrin, it was his first trip into space, and he set a record for spacewalking. Lovell said the flight demonstrated that an astronaut could work successfully outside a capsule, paving the way for the first moon landing.

"We did things that we were worried about and discovered how to do them, like extravehicular activity,'' said Lovell, a North Shore resident. "Buzz getting out of the spacecraft -- that was always a bugaboo with previous space flights."

They're no longer the shiny space cowboys of their youth, though the pair remain friends.

After retirement, Lovell joined the corporate world and opened a restaurant, Lovell's of Lake Forest. Aldrin founded a rocket design company, co-wrote a couple of sci-fi novels and, in a revealing autobiography, told of his marital infidelities and battles with depression.

Source: www.dailysouthtown.com/news/127763,2NWS8-08.article

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I will be there Wednesday to cover the two astronauts dedicating the new exhibit.