October Vacation: Space Legacy

I am the granddaughter of one of America's first rocket scientists, though I hardly ever act like it. My grandfather was a pioneer in the field of radar guidance systems, rockets, satellites, interplanetary exploration and other things I don't really understand. He was a great man.

A partial quote from his obituary printed in the Washington Post on July 11, 2006:

"Mr. Cummings earned his bachelor's degree in physics at CalTech in 1944 and did his advanced studies at Harvard and MIT Radar Schools. He married Jean McDonald, his high-school sweetheart, in 1944 in Boston while on military assignment. He served as a Radar Officer, 1st Lieutenant, in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1944-1946.... Born and raised in Southern California, Mr. Cummings returned to Pasadena and joined the fledgling Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1946. He was responsible for the development of the Corporal Guided Missile telemetry and radio guidance systems. From 1954-1957, he served as the Corporal Technical Coordinator, Jupiter Project Director, and Chief of the Systems Engineering Division. In advance of the 1958 launching of Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, Mr. Cummings was sent to Washington, D.C., on special assignment to the Department of Defense and served as JPL's first representative to the newly-created NASA.

Returning to Pasadena as the Lunar Project Director for JPL, Mr. Cummings was responsible for Project Ranger [which he named after the family camper], our nation's first unmanned lunar spacecrafts. Under his leadership, the launches of the initial Ranger crafts provided important feedback needed to ultimately reach and travel beyond the moon in interplanetary exploration."

He did a stint with Electro-Optical Systems of Xerox and some assisting in the Department of Defense before rejoining JPL in 1983 as the Manager of East Coast Technologies and Applications Programs Office. He retired from JPL in 1991 at the age of 68. He loved fishing, had a hearty appreciation for puns, and wore a pearl tie tack for as long as I can remember. I miss his laugh.

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While down in Florida, we had the opportunity to visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center twice. It was really great and all of us found something to ooooh and aaaah about. The first day we went was my third child's third birthday. Upon entering the gate there was a real space shuttle and it's enormous solid rocket boosters on display and he exclaimed, "WOW- THAT IS THE BIGGEST ROCKET I HAVE EVER SEEN!" We all concurred and it was certainly enough to get us pretty excited.

It was a relatively slow day for the Center; the parking lot was only a quarter full. Our first stop inside was the shuttle Discovery. The little ones and I walked up the ramp and got a great view of the inside of the payload area and control panel, while my husband and the oldest child went on the launch simulation ride which consisted of lots of shaking and loud noises.

Next was the tour bus which took us to a launch pad viewing tower, then on to the spectacular Apollo/Saturn V exhibit. This one had a couple of short movies about some early NASA crafts. After a thrilling short history, we entered a huge room filled with a real Saturn V rocket. It was beautiful. This facility also housed some gallery rooms, a real (tiny) moon rock you can touch, a moon buggy, a Ranger craft, a cafe and a gift shop.

On our way back to the main visitors' complex, we saw two very rare and seemingly unrelated items. First, as we passed by the main vehicle assembly building (the world's tallest one-story building), it's doors were just closing. Inside we could clearly see the shuttle Atlantis, which was going to roll out to its launch pad later that night, and the brand-new Ares I-X rocket right next to it. If I understood correctly, the significance here is that this will be the last space shuttle launch, after which the new Ares and Orion rockets will form a new mission in human space exploration called Constellation which will expand from Low Earth Orbit to the Moon and finally to Mars. There they were, the present and the future side by side. The other rare sight was an enormous nest of a bald eagle in the trees along the road. They put some real effort into making the area a friendly place for all sorts of native wild creatures. Perhaps those two things are not as unrelated as they might seem at first glance.

We had melting kids at this point, so we headed home after making sure to get our tickets validated for a return trip within 7 days. We came back two days later to see the Moon Walk IMAX movie in 3D (awesome), visit the kids' playground, the gift shop, the Robot Scouts exhibit (disappointing- I was hoping for more), and the great rocket garden.

I don't know if I will ever get back there again so it was a great pleasure to be able to see the place where some of my grandfather's work launched. I was inspired again to care about places beyond my own life, to wonder at the technologies mankind has developed, to grieve at the failures and human losses, to stand in awe of the gains, and to hope for amazing discoveries and adventures in the future.