The misadventures of Commander Merlin and the crew of RV-103
Sunday September 5th 2010

Blast From the Past

Rocketboy in the center with his beloved Mickey Mouse Ears at age nine.

Yeah that’s me when I was Rocketboy.  I’m the one in the center with the Mickey Mouse ears.  That was in 1973 when my now deceased grandparents took me and my two older cousins to Kennedy Space Center.  I was nine years old at the time.  At that time you could park right outside of the VAB and go on guided tours inside.  I got to see Skylab in its final preparations before it was sent out to the launch pad.  I would have never dreamed at that time that 31 years later I would be starting work there as a TPS technician on Space Shuttle Discovery.  I wish my grandfather had lived long enough to see that come to fruition.