Tag: Apollo

  • It’s A Wonderful (Correspondent’s) Life

    I know, I know, it’s cliche to write the year-end retrospective article around New Year’s.  However, I can’t help it.  It’s my nature as a scientist to analyze, evaluate, and reflect, and it’s amazing to think about all the different experiences I’ve squeezed into 2009.  There were trips to Disneyland, Walt Disney World, SeaWorld, Universal…

  • Apollo 40th Anniversary: Kennedy Space Center July 16, 2009

    July 16, 1969.  I was not quite 7 months old when three men were blasted into space atop a “monstrous machine” from Cape Canaveral, Florida (now the Kennedy Space Center).  I certainly do not remember this event, but the Apollo missions had a profound influence on my life nonetheless.  My father, Vaughn R. Parfitt, Ph.D.,…