Lunch with an Astronaut

[BarrettFamily]

Has anyone done this and if so is it worth it?
DH is a bit of a space buff but looking at the Astronauts who will be doing this while we are there none of them have been in space for years. Does this matter?
He definitely wants to do the Up Close Tour. Would we have time to do the normal bits, this extra tour and the lunch?

Thanks for any suggestions.:wavey:

[Tanya934]

When we did it we had John McBride & found him really interesting.
You have lunch & then the astronaut comes in & gives a talk.
This is then followed by a Q&A session & then you get to have your photo taken with them with both the official camera & your own one as well.

You also get a signed photo with a bio on the back.

IMHO it's worth it, as are the 2 tours.:grin:

[loadsapixiedust]

I'm not sure about the lunch, but we did a 'meet an astronaut' thing at KSC on our first trip (in 1998) and really enjoyed it. He had also retired but was still a very interesting speaker and able to answer all the questions put to him.
You can do the tour at your own pace so it shouldn't be too difficult to fit it all in, although I wouldn't be too late arriving as it was a full day as I recall.

[glorfy]

We did this as part of the ATX tour, and it was the highlight. Yes it was an ancient astronaut, but his insight and listening to his experiences was great. Being as he wasn't a current astronaut (John Fabien) he had no problems giving his opinion on how things are going either. It really helped there was only 4 of us, so we had him all to our table! There can be several tables, and then he goes round them all spending a few minutes at each. Well worth doing.

The astronaut is the one on the left :tounge:

http://premium1.uploadit.org/glorfy//anpic_tn.JPG (http://premium1.uploadit.org/glorfy//anpic.JPG)

[BarrettFamily]

Thanks for your replies. If DM fancies it (as she is going with us) then I think we will book the lunch. I know it is an extra $20+ each but we have to buy lunch anyway so overall it is not that much more of an expense.

[highlander447]

Its a nice lunch as well, and we found the astronaunt to have led a pretty amazing life:smile: