I have a loose connection to the
National Space Society's annual conference, the International Space
Development Conference. My first ISDC was in 2009 in Orlando as just
an attendee. When I was an officer in the Huntsville chapter of NSS,
HAL5, I was on the planning committee for ISDC 2011 in Huntsville. I
served as VIP Relations during ISDC 2011 and ISDC 2013 in San Diego.
In that role, I interfaced with, greeted, managed, escorted, and in
many ways assisted celebrity and important conference guests.
My every-other-year involvement in
ISDC broke this year when I realized that attending the conference in
Toronto was not in the cards for me. Or so I thought! A couple months
back, I got a call from one of the conference organizers who asked me
to present an NSS award to a VIP guests who was suddenly unable to
attend as well. The presentation would be captured on video and shown during one of the conference dinners. It just so happens that this guest lives 15 minutes
from me. I speak of veteran space reporter and author Jay Barbree who
won this year's Space Pioneer award for Mass Media.
Jay is an NBC reporter who has covered
every single American human launch to space and has worked in the
industry for 50 years. He currently lives in a beautiful house on a
strip of Merritt Island with water on either side of them. His lovely
wife showed me around the house which was an unusually beautiful
white-painted rustic wood with Japanese décor with huge windows
everywhere and a pool in the back – gorgeous. Jay's office is a
home studio, his grandson is his cameraman, and his daughter edits
the videos.
Jay and his wife were very warm,
complimentary, and welcoming. We made a two-minute-long video where I
gave him the award and he accepted it with a short speech. We did a
few practice runs before getting it as we wanted it. The Space
Pioneer awards – globes in the shape of a moon or a heavily
cratered planet resting on a platform with three arms – were quite
heavy, and after so many minutes of holding it up for the camera, our
arms did get tired!
Jay already has several awards from his
long career including an Emmy which you can see in the background on
the shelf. Jay also kindly gave me three of his books which he signed
for me: Moonshot, Live from Cape Canaveral, and Neil Armstrong: A
Life of Flight. I look forward to reading them. It was a pleasure to
meet Jay and to present the award to him on behalf of NSS!
 |
| Presenting the NSS award to Jay Barbree, May 11, 2015 - Can you spot the Emmy? |
 |
| Three of Jay's books which he signed for me - thanks Jay! |
My every-other-year involvement streak
may indeed be broken, however. There is already talk of me attending
ISDC 2016 in Puerto Rico. ¡Espero!
No comments:
Post a Comment