Remembering Apollo Astronaut Richard Gordon
Published by
Sean Mobley
on
Dick Gordon passed away in November 2017, and author and volunteer Jake Schultz had the honor of recording Gordon’s oral history few months prior to learn about his experiences as an astronaut. In this episode, Gordon talks spaceflight, corvettes, and football.
He recalls the differences between the Gemini and Apollo missions. Gemini’s Titan II rocket was an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) designed to get you into orbit as fast as possible at altitude and then shut down. The Saturn V rocket on the Apollo mission, however, was a different kind of ride. “It shook, rattled and rolled,” Gordon describes.
Gordon, a Seattle native, also fondly recalls bonding with his crew—Pete Conrad and Alan Bean—over their three red Corvettes and taking on the role of the Executive Vice President of the New Orleans Saints after his space career.
Get a taste of what it took to put a man on the Moon in our Apollo exhibit and stay tuned for info about Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, an exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. This traveling exhibit comes to our Museum in 2019.
Host: Sean Mobley
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