Hi all,
On Thursday 8/1, I had an exhibit at the Dickson TN, Wonders Center and Science Museum. Retired astronaut Colonel Jeff Williams did a live broadcast, hour long presentation in the theater and then a taped Q&A session and then a book signing in the rotunda next to the dinosaur museum room.
The staff set my table up next to Colonel Williams book table. See photo. I spoke with about 100 of the evening’s 450 guests about America’s human space exploration program before the presentation and during the book signing session.
I set up a Soyuz rocket, the Space Shuttle on the mobile launch platform, and the ISS, all of which Colonel Williams flew on. He used my ISS to show the Unity and Zarya modules he helped supply during his only shuttle mission in 2000, before we started permanent occupancy later that year. He also spoke about the inflatable BEAM module that he inflated and was first to go inside during his third ISS expedition in 2016. He spent 534 days in space over 4 missions and launched and landed in 3 Soyuz vehicles.
I had Dragon, Starliner, Soyuz and Progress vehicles docked to the ISS. I spoke with Colonel Williams a couple of times and he graciously signed my ISS model.
Additionally I had an Atlas V with Starliner, Dream Chaser with Shooting Star, Lunar Gateway station with Orion, and three Moon landing vehicles, the Apollo Lunar Module, SpaceX’s HLS starship variant, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK2. All these models are made to the same scale to give the public a good idea of the sizes. I used these to tell people about the ISS program and the coming Artemis Moon exploration program.
I enjoyed meeting Colonel Williams and speaking with so many space interested guests, some of whom expressed interest in joining MTSS or had family with interests.
Next exhibit is 8/23 at Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory from 9-11 pm. Then 9/14 at the US Space & Rocket Center for NASA’s International Observe the Moon Night.
Chuck Schlemm
Moon Society -Nashville Outpost
NSS -Middle Tennessee Space Society
