John F. Kennedy Space Center, N.A.S.A.

JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER N.A.S.A.

The original 7 Astronauts selected by NASA.  From left to right, Navy Lt. Comm. Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Air Force Capt. Leroy Cooper, Jr. Marine Lt. Col. John Glenn, Jr., Air Force Captain Virgil Grissom, Navy Lt. Comm. Walter Schira, Jr., Navy Lt. Comm. Alan Shepard, Jr., Air Force Major Donald Slayton.

postmarked March 29, 1968 Evanston, Ill.

Bob-

Just wanted to say "hi" -

Love,

John

Robert A, Strain

The Maytag Company

Oakbrook North

700 Harger Road

Oakbrook, Illinois

Bob Strain passed away in 2008.  (Coincidentally that same year, a different Robert Strain took over as director for NASA's Goddard Space Center.)  Bob did indeed work for the Maytag Corporation, retiring after 35 years.  After reading his obituary, I've decided against using any Maytag Repairman jokes- the man lived a full and happy life, well after his career at Maytag was over.  

As far as the original seven Mercury astronauts pictured on the front of this card, many are still with us:

Malcolm Scott Carpenter was the pilot of the second U.S. orbital flight, and is currently retired with his third wife, Barbara Curtin.

Leroy Cooper, Jr. , also known as Gordon Cooper, flew the last Mercury mission.  He passed away in 2004, still steadfast in his belief in UFOs and the government conspiracy to hide their existence.  

John Glenn, Jr.,  was the pilot of the first U.S. orbital space flight, and famously became the oldest human in space on board the Space Shuttle in 1998.  The former Congressman is retired and living with his wife in Ohio.

Virgil Grissom, the pilot of the second U.S. suborbital spaceflight was killed the year before this postcard was sent in the Apollo 1 fire. 

Walter Schira, Jr.,  the only astronaut in the Mercury group to receive an Emmy for the live television feed inside his Apollo mission.  After his retirement, he became a spokesman for Actifed, which kept his famous cold at bay during his mission.   Wally Schirra died in 2007.

  

Alan Shepard, Jr., pilot of the first Mercury flight passed away in 1998.

Donald "Deke" Slayton went on to found a company in Houston that launched the first private vehicle into space, the Conestoga.  He passed away from a brain tumor in 1993.

The links go to their official NASA biographies, but there is much more of their story (as well as Bob Strain's story) to tell on this little post.  Check it out, and go visit the Kennedy Space Center to learn about the rich history that went down in central Florida.

JFK Space Center, Vehicle Assembly Building

Postmarked March 27, 1968 Evanston, Ill.

Hi-

We went on this bus tour of Cape Kennedy on Friday.  We went into this biggest building in the world & we also saw the Saturn V rocket to be launched in April.

JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA NASA

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Bldg. (VAB) 525 ft. tall, occupying 8 acres of land, world's largest building in volume, where Apollo- Saturn Space Vehicles are assembled and prepared for lunar launch.

Andy Strain

583 Brookside Rd.

Barrington, Illinois 60010

With the recent scrub and retry on Tuesday of the SpaceX Dragon launch vehicle, I thought we'd travel over to the space coast for these next two cards, from the same sender, John.  You may notice that John refers to a Cape Kennedy, which is the name given to Cape Canaveral shortly after the President's assassination.  Since the Canaveral name had been established since the time of Ponce deLeon, many Floridans on the Space Coast objected, and finally got the state of Florida to restore the Canaveral name in 1973.  The Kennedy name is still memorialized in the title of the launch center and tourist attraction, of course.  

The Vehicle Assembly Building, built in 1966, was originally built to assemble the Saturn rockets for the Apollo missions.  It's one and half times the height of the Statue of Liberty, and contains nearly twice the volume as the Pentagon.  It was the tallest building in Florida until the Wells Fargo (Modis/Independent Life) Tower was built in Jacksonville in 1974.  

The 3 bedroom, 2.25 bathroom house in Barrington was built in 1962, and was sold in 2000.  Andy never owned the house, since he was most likely a child when he received this card.  Today, he is the chair of the Tahoe Transportation District Board of Directors in Lake Tahoe, California.  I'll update this post if he replies to my email.