Here a couple years ago I was checking the NASA web site as a I do typically a few times a week, and I saw an article or two that talked about a few of the newer astronauts and some of the training they were doing at the time.

One astronaut name I read kind of stuck in my head for a bit, and I kept rolling the name around in my head over and over. Warren Hoburg…Warren Hoburg…Warren Hoburg. I had just sat down to supper, but while I was eating a thought came to mind….

After supper I went downstairs and pulled out a few of my LDRS video production notebooks (I prepared a bound notebook each year for each LDRS video or any other video I produced for all my raw footage shot logs, production notes and narration script drafts, etc) and started searching though them.

Sure enough, in my LDRS-22 video from Argonia, Kansas in 2003, I had some interview footage notes for a “Woody Hoburg”. I then pulled up some of the final exported digital video files for that production and began scrolling through them. And there he was…a teenaged, wind-blown hair kid, probably late high school age. And now he was an astronaut!

A quick check of his bio indicated that the young Mr. Hoburg had done quite well for himself scholastically after his high school years, with an undergrad degree from MIT and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. At the time of his selection in June 2017, Woody was an assistant professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, where he taught undergraduate courses on Dynamics and Flight Vehicle Engineering.

And come late this Sunday night, he will be piloting the SpaceX-6 crew capsule along with the mission commander and two mission specialists to the ISS! Rocket boy has done good for himself!!

Attached below is a frame grab from my LDRS-22 video of the teen-aged Woody on the plains of Kansas outside Argonia with an upscale Mosquito over his shoulder. Also attached is a photo of the SpaceX crew inside their capsule. Woody is second from left.

Link to latest NASA mission blog: https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcr...crew-6-mission/

One never knows where life may lead! Best wishes to Woody and the entire crew as they embark on their mission.

Earl

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__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Indeed. We're super excited here for Woody, as he was a PSC club member until he left for MIT. Here's a photo of him and his TARC model at our 2002 November launch. How the years pass by.

Congratulations, Woody! Here's to a great flight.

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John
YORF #003
SAM #004

Earl,

Absolutely wonderful story! Thank you so much for sleuthing and sharing.

Steve

Earl,

I shared your post with my MIT model rocketry friends and it turns out that while at MIT he did some work for an aerospace company whose former director is hoping to go to the Cape to watch him launch this weekend. I also passed along the posts to MIT grad Trip Barber just to make him feel good about what former TARC participants are up to.

Thanks again for making us aware of Woody's accomplishments.

It is gratifying to see 'one of us' make the transition from flying models to flying on board the 'real' thing into space.

And maybe if the stars align just right (no pun intended), Woody might could be one of the lucky future Artemis astros who get to plant a footprint on the moon. Lots of things to have to happen between now and then (not least of which is continuation of the program to the point of actually landing people on the moon...no guarantee of that), and Woody does not fit NASA's Artemis mantra of "putting the first woman and first person of color on the moon", but there WILL be others to go on those mission besides JUST women and minorities. But enough on THAT aspect of it. Now is the time to celebrate Woody's accomplishments thus far!

To wit, looks like things are sill on track for a Falcon 9 launch late tonight at 1:45am from LC-39A!

Godspeed, Woody and crew!!

Latest blog link: https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-6/

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Launch scrubbed due to issue with GSE.


Bill

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It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Yeah, I really thought they were going to go. Gotta be tough to scrub at T- 2 minutes or so in he count. They’ll try again late Wednesday night it looks like, assuming they can fix their ignition fluid metering issue.

Blog link: https://blogs.nasa.gov/crew-6/2023/...launch-attempt/

Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

After more than 60 years of manned space flight, launch scrubs due to other than weather still come WAYYYYYYY too often.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

GH, as my friends in the aerospace industry often comment, "space is hard."

Steve

Lol.
My comment was half sarcasm.
It almost seems with the more experience the industry gets, the more difficult it becomes.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !