When my cartoons flew in space on Easter weekend
And I met Neil Armstrong
As Artemis II heads toward the Moon, space travel has been on my mind and on my heart. Especially this weekend.
On Easter Monday—April 5—2010, Space Shuttle Discovery STS-131, launched into orbit, returning fifteen days later, on April 20.
My family and I were lucky enough to have been invited to the Kennedy Space Center to watch as Discovery and its crew defied gravity, soaring above us for the 6:21 a.m. launch.
On board, was Nebraska-born astronaut, Clayton Anderson. And also, two of my original cartoons which Clay had asked to take on board with him carrying them around the globe during his mission.
Before heading outside for the launch many of us were inside the Saturn V complex, literally standing beneath a Saturn V rocket handing from the ceiling parallel to the ground. It was like a sideways skyscraper.
I was the cartoonist for the Omaha World-Herald at the time and as we waited I saw a display of famous newspaper front pages from the first moon landing.
There were only a few and one of them was the Omaha World-Herald.
The big headline read:
First Footprints on an Alien World
Mark a ‘Giant Leap for Mankind;’
Moon is a ‘Magnificent Desolation’
Next I noticed a small crowd gathering around Neil Armstrong. First human to step onto the Moon.
I don’t have a lot of celebrity heroes but he was definitely one of them.
I nervously went up to him and introduced myself and pointed to the newspaper headline and attempted to explain why I was at the launch and that I worked for that newspaper. He seemed tired so I didn’t say much more.
What i didn’t tell him:
That front page meant the world to me. I remembered seeing it as a kid the day after the Moon landing. My family even had a coffee mug with that front page on it.
And i remembered seeing every day at the newspaper as the hallways of the old building were lined with famous front pages.
The Kennedy assassination, Omaha’s blizzard of 1975, Omaha’s tornado of 1975...
And the one that Neil Armstrong and I were now both gazing at together if even for a moment.
A few minutes later, outside, the countdown continued until the engines of the rocket roared, the early morning sky igniting with color...
These photos were taken just after liftoff, contrails painted on the dawn, some of the most beautiful works of art I have ever seen.
And on the shuttle, two of my original drawings. For a fuller story on the Dogie cartoon, you can read what I wrote about it for ABC News here.
Happy Easter!
—Jef
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