MITCHELL – Saturday evening Mitchell’s Opera House was a bustle as people settled in for a glimpse into the world of former astronauts Dr. Joe Allen, Jerry Ross, Charlie Walker, Kevin Ford, and Tony England.
The Galactic Gather was started in 2017 and ran every year until 2020. With the advent of COVID-19, it failed to meet for 2020, 2021, and 2022. Steve Grissom said this year is a fresh start, “Bringing all the astronauts back together for the first time since 2017.” It’s taking the event “back to the roots.”
2023 marks the re-starting of a wonderful, informative event for anyone interested in space and those individuals that made it all possible.
The evening began with an introduction by Gus Grissom’s first cousin Steve Grissom, and actor Joel Johnston, who played Gus Grissom in “Astronaut Wives Club” on TV. They were followed by Doctor Joe Allen, credited as the very first astronaut.
Dr. Joe Allen, 86, was born when the title of astronaut, or the job itself didn’t exist yet. Dr. Allen joined Steve Grissom for an interview on stage, to the delight of the audience.
Early on, Dr. Allen wanted to be a science teacher, but Russia’s space ventures spurred the US to their own astronomical pursuits, and years later, he found himself in an occupation that hadn’t existed when he was a child.
The first experiment he credits to a time when he was just a boy puzzled over the stories of Santa coming down the chimney. As he said, “How could a fat man fit down a chimney?”
Dr. Allen took the matter into his own hands and ventured into his backyard, where he attempted to fit down an unused brick chimney. Needless to say, he didn’t fit in and ended up stuck for a long while, yelling and screaming for help. When they finally found him, they had to break the chimney down brick by brick to get him out, but one thing was for sure – a fat man would not be able to go down a chimney.
That was the first experiment in a life that would be filled with the experimental. Dr. Joe Allen became a professor at Yale when he was 24 years old. He used to sit in the front row of his lectures on the first day of classes as students came in, to tell horror stories about the professor to the students.
He would then proceed to teach the class.
Dr. Allen urged everyone to learn, “Educate yourself!” he said, “Because you may find yourself in a profession that wasn’t invented yet!”
Dr. Allen explained his journey from Capsule communications to finally racking up 314 total hours in space.
Steve Grissom asked if space travel was safe. Dr. Joe answered with an emphatic “No!”
One of his more memorable stories includes his modification of an ‘astronaut-proof” camera. He engineered the camera to take pictures of his fellow astronauts, despite not being supposed to take pictures inside.
As the riveting interview drew to a close, Joe Allen was asked for words of advice for the young people in the audience. He repeated what he said before, with an addition: “Do what you enjoy doing – do what you like. Then get the best education you can.”
The next feature was the interviewing of each of the remaining astronauts as each took time to answer questions. One of the most interesting was their response to this question: “Was there ever a time when you thought ‘I might not make it home from this’?”
Surprisingly, the moments that should have had that reaction didn’t permit them the time to worry about it. They were busy thinking about what to do next, and how to fix whatever was happening.
The event drew to a close after exploring unique aspects of each’s career and their initial draw to the world of space exploration, with a Q&A for the audience to ask them questions of their own.
The event was entertaining, engaging, and infinitely fun, with just the right amount of humor and history. For those of you that didn’t get a ticket this year, try for next! You won’t regret it.
As a community, we are lucky to have something so culturally rich right in our backyard. People came from all over the US for this experience.
