First Space Walker Among 60 Space Pioneers Converging In US For
First Time In A Decade
For the first time in more than a decade, the world's "Space
Fliers" will meet in the United States. The Association of
Space Explorers (ASE) XIX Planetary Congress is convening in Utah,
October 9 – 15.
The Association of Space Explorers is the organization of more
than 250 astronauts and cosmonauts from 29 nations who have orbited
the globe. This prestigious organization will meet to discuss the
future of space flight, technical improvements, and space science's
impact on life today. Of the confirmed representatives who are
attending this distinguished event, their total space flight time
equals more than 1/4th of all of human space flight history.
Guided by this years' theme: "Our Destiny in Space: Worlds
Without Borders," ASE's distinguished astronauts and cosmonauts
will serve as ambassadors for space flight and engineering, making
in-person visits to every school district in the state. They also
will meet with various members of Utah's space industry and help
launch the Governor's "Economic Cluster" program emphasizing the
State's contributions to the aerospace industry. Their schedule
includes a visit to ATK facilities in Promontory, Utah, the
production home of the nation's only human-rated solid rocket
motors. These motors currently power the Space Shuttle fleet and
NASA recently announced that they will serve as the propulsion
baseline for its next-generation space exploration initiative.
The Congress will honor the 30th anniversary of the Soyuz/Apollo
Mission into space. Crew members from this mission include Thomas
P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton (deceased), from
the Apollo crew; and Valeriy Nikolayevich Kubasov and Alexei
Arkhipovich Leonov from the Soyuz crew. With the exception of
Slayton and Kubasov, these mission fliers will be attending ASE's
19th Planetary Congress in Utah. The astronauts will be visiting
every school district in the State on Wednesday, October 12 and a
public "meet the astronaut" event with Vance D. Brand will be held
at the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City that night, October 12,
from 7pm to 9pm.
With 746 flight hours in Space, Brand has flown 3 shuttle
missions in addition to his command of the Soyuz/Apollo Mission.
290 free tickets, available on a first come first served basis, for
a theatre talk by Astronaut Brand, followed by a question and
answer session will be given away at the Planetarium beginning
October 5th until gone.
Former Utah Senator Jake Garn, an astronaut who served as
payload specialist on 1985's Discovery Flight 51-D, is the host for
the meeting.
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