Celebrating 50 Years of NASA

Downtown Washington Civitan Club member and President of the United States John F. Kennedy inspired the world with his vision of human spaceflight to the moon, and the tremendous work of the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration made that dream a reality in only 9 years. Continuing with the Space Shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars rovers, the International Space Station, and dozens of mission-specific satellites, NASA began it's 50th anniversary celebration this past October (www.nasa.gov/50th). Civitan is honoring this historic anniversary by looking back at our organization’s small role in NASA’s proud history.

When astronauts made the first manned flight around the moon during the Apollo 8 mission, Civitan International Vice President Curtis Hunt was aboard the USS Yorktown to greet the returning heroes after their landing in the Pacific. Astronauts Frank Borman, William Anders and Jim Lovell were made honorary members of their local club, received Citizenship Awards from Civitan International, and were featured on the cover of Civitan Magazine.

Jim Lovell went into space again as the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission, this time carrying three Civitan member pins with him. The mission’s moon landing was cancelled due to an explosion onboard the spacecraft, but the crew and mission control worked valiantly to save the ship. Several weeks after the crew’s safe return, the Civitan pins were returned with an unassuming but playful letter: “Please excuse our tardiness in returning your flight articles. The post-flight activities, including the necessary debriefing and appearances, have made us delinquent in this respect.”

Defected German scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun, who was called “the greatest rocket scientist in history”, led the design of Apollo program’s Saturn V launch vehicle. While touring the Marshall Space Flight Center in 1970, International President John Ledbetter was personally presented with an autographed model rocket by Dr. von Braun. The same year, he became one of the few individuals to receive Civitan International’s World Citizenship Award.

Even after the Apollo program, Civitan’s connection to NASA remained strong. James Irwin, an Apollo 15 astronaut and the eighth person to walk on the moon, served as the honorary chairperson of Civitan’s Clergy Appreciation Week in 1974. NASA also helped one club set a record for distance traveled by a piece of Civitan equipment. In 1988, the banner of the Sunrise Civitan Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico, traveled 1.8 million miles aboard the space shuttle Atlantis during a classified mission for the US Department of Defense. Even micro-gravity medical research, conducted high above the earth, has benefited the work of research institutions like Civitan’s Research Center.

Today, many members are working to ensure NASA's continued success. Civitans working on the International Space Station built the Houston-Clear Lake Civitan Club when members of their team were transferred to Texas, and Past International Board Director Rick Moore leads software development for our return to the moon. With the help of these and other members, Civitan’s support for NASA and other scientific research will continue, along with our pride and admiration for its tremendous impact on our world. Happy 50th birthday NASA! http://www.civitan.org