(Untitled)

[alby]

I have spent the last couple of days at the Kennedy Space Center with some other engineering educators. Some of us were guests of NASA as they try to push the systems engineering approach that they use in engineering curricula

Comments

[lady_stetson]

If you're still there or have a good contact there, can you please get in touch with me? I'm trying to track down a piece of history there (I think it might be there - or in Houston, things are unclear at this point) that's probably hung on the walls in one of those off limit areas... _Lady_S_ on Yahoo IM or email, LStetson13 on AIM. Ktnboo has my cell number... Any hour is fine :)

[alby]

I am sorry; I am back home and all the trip was organized through their education / public relations department :(

[lady_stetson]

Oh well! I don't suppose they showed you a satellite design that was done on the back of a placemat in the early 1970's and hanging on some wall somewhere...

[alby]

No, we didn't see any other those history items. What's the story behind it?

[lady_stetson]

Supposedly my dad and two other guys were contractors to NASA in the early 1970's. While at Jack-in-the-Box one night they figured out the design for a satellite fix and drew it out on the back of the placemat. After it was implemented (years later) NASA brought them back to sign the placemat which was hung on a wall somewhere. When they hung the placemat, Seymour Cray happened to be there (in theory one of his supercomputers was being used for some part of the design) and so there's a picture of Cray shaking my dad's hand. But my dad didn't get a copy of the picture or placemat and he keeps talking about them and wants a copy now. So I'm trying to track them down without letting him know... difficult at best!