Education Department at Spacefest 2009

Over the weekend the Education Department had a booth at the Spacefest event, which was all about space (as you can guess). Each year it travels to a different city. This year they decided to come to sunny San Diego.

On Thursday it held a charity golf tournament, with proceeds going to the Museum, which allowed participants to golf with people who walked on the moon (six of the twelve people who ever walked on the moon were at this event). On Friday it held a special VIP evening event at the Museum. For the first time in 37 14 (depending on who you ask) years, the Apollo 9 crew were all in the same room together. Not only that, they were all reunited with their spacecraft, which is part of our Museum display.

For the rest of the weekend they set up shop at the Town & Country Convention Center in Mission Valley with an autograph area, art area, and a vendor area (SD Space and SD Mars Society had booths). Some of the astronauts and celebrities in attendance and signing autographs were Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Gene Cernan (Apollo 17), Richard Hatch (Captain Apollo on Battlestar Galactica), and LeVar Burton (Star Trek). Space authors and enthusiasts were also invited to give presentations and hold book signings. Our own Francis French gave a talk on Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, and signed and sold many books afterward.

While technically at work promoting our Museum to visitors, we did have some time to talk with various astronauts and celebrities who came by our booth (we don’t like to call it bragging, but it is so cool to meet these people). Below are some of those photos taken over the course of the weekend:

Brent with Richard Hatch

Hatch discuss politics with Brent

Francis with Richard Hatch

Francis with LeVar Burton

Shalene with LeVar Burton

Francis with Alan Bean and Mark Larson

Book Signing

Shalene with two of the Apollo 11 crew

Francis with Mike and Pat Collins

Francis and Jim McDivitt

Francis with Charlie Duke