Friday, October 5, 2007

Video interviews with astronauts James F. Reilly II and Walter Cunningham

By John P. Meyer

The included video files document a pair of interviews conducted on Thursday, Oct. 4 by media folks welcoming astronauts Jim Reilly and Walt Cunningham to the Frontiers of Flight Museum on the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. Later that same evening Walt and Jim returned to the museum for a screening of David Hoffman's documentary about Sputnik and how it dramatically affected the U.S. population at large, as well as arguably shaping the nature of the space race between the two world super powers (and cold war competitors).

Doing most of the question-hurling in these videos is BJ Austin of KRLD radio; this correspondent snuck in a couple of questions towards the end of the Cunningham interview, and just past the mid-way point of the Reilly vid.

Just for the record, the question I asked Walt about the cold he allegedly came down with aboard Apollo 7 was entirely innocent; I'd read about it here (scroll down to the paragraph that begins: "Some of the crew's grumpiness during the mission could be attributed to physical discomfort.") and found it an interesting tidbit which I thought might generate a bit of discussion. I had no idea I was strolling into a sore-spot buzz saw.

And - honest - my question about the back-engineering of UFOs was an attempt (admittedly a failed one) at deriving chuckle-worthy humor from Col. Cunningham's time spent at the Rand Corporation - I certainly wasn't fishing for a serious reply.

Visible in the background of the Jim Reilly interview video is a gentleman reporter from the UTD Mercury, media hub for that local institution from which Dr. Reilly received all three of his degrees (bachelors, masters and doctorate).

Three final notes: 1) the audio tracks have been boosted, resulting in a considerable amount of background hiss; 2) when I referred to "Houston" as the home of Armadillo Aerospace, I was thinking "Mesquite" (which is correct - sorry, Mr. Carmack!), but somehow "Houston" burst forth from my mouth; 3) Although Jim Reilly did not read PegNews before our interview, he certainly will now.

The Reilly vid is just over 11 minutes long; the Cunningham one is about 7 1/2 minutes.

Related stories

• UPDATED: UTD flag flies in space; returns to earth; becomes part of university history (Nov. 23, 2007)

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