OK, so this is “Starman” in an electric powered convertible that was just shuttled into a space orbit and is now “driving” in an endless circle around the sun… and it happened in my lifetime. Amazing.

When I was born, man had not yet reached the stars. In fact, in the year of my birth, the most important technological achievement attained to that point was the creation of Velcro.

I remember watching the Mercury missions as they aimed for space and hit it. I remember the announcement that we would be placing a man on the moon and receiving it with a weird mixture of hope and skepticism. But I also remember following all the Apollo missions with awe as they brought us closer and closer to achieving that wondrous accomplishment of a human being standing on our moon looking down upon us. That it was a feat televised live seems something of a miracle in and of itself.

I had a client in my studio today who shared with me the single most significant moment of his life. I can’t say that I understood all the technical underpinnings but he was some kind of specialist in optical engineering. It seems NASA was having problems with their cameras not being able to maintain focus in the vacuum of space. They asked him to come aboard their Apollo capsule, while it was on the launchpad hours from blasting off, just to make sure the cameras were going to operate properly during the mission.

He said that he was suited up, just like the astronauts and right before he climbed into the capsule, the NASA engineer who accompanied him to the gangway said, “You know, if the President of the United States were here and wanted to come inside at this moment, we’d have to tell him no.” It made an impression on him as to what a unique position he was in and the level of responsibility he held. It was an impression that obviously remained with him to this day. 

By the way, he solved whatever the problem was. Mission accomplished.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit http://www.homevideostudio.com/mtd.