I was a CAP senior member at the 2006 AF Space Command Familiarization Course at Patrick AFB.

In addition to a briefing from Brig. Gen. Susan Helms, commander of the 45th Space Wing and a veteran astronaut of five space flights who holds the world record for a spacewalk (8 hours and 56 minutes), we were briefed by the project scientist for NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory), the captain of NASA's solid rocket booster retrieval ships Liberty Star and Freedom Star, and the project director of NASA's Project Genesis.

We were also permitted to visit the Apollo 1 launch pad memorial site, and were treated by the USAF 301 Rescue Squadron to a 45-minute USAF HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter overflight of NASA's launch pads. Needless to say, I am a big fan of the space program, and will cherish these memories forever.

1. 2.

[1] At the Kennedy Space Center, at the launching of the space shuttle Discovery. [2] At the NASA News Center, as three astronauts wait to be interviewed by the media.

Even more exciting, my AFSPC-FC experiences caught NASA's interest and I was invited to help handle the media during the launch of space shuttle Discovery STS-120 on Oct. 23, 2007 for a mission to the International Space Station. I was at the NASA News Center at Kennedy Space Center for 4 days, helping coordinate media access to astronauts on-site for interviews and actually sat in on an astronaut's interview by a New York Times reporter. In addition to also answering telephone inquiries, I accompanied media on a tour of KSC, including a walk inside the Vehicle Assembly Building and up to the ramp to the shuttle.

I was also part of the large media group that watched the astronauts walk to the Astrovan that took them to Launch Pad 39A.

Captain Steven Solomon, Director of Public Affairs, Southeast Region, August 2006
Member, National PA Advisory  Committee