Retired NASA engineer and part-time Squamish resident Jim Meyer will be speaking in Gibsons next week about his time with the space program.
Jim Meyer worked for NASA for 37 years and was involved in more than 160 missions, including the Apollo program from Apollo 7 through 17 and Apollo-Soyuz, the first joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. space flight.
Meyer told Coast Reporter he had “a total hoot” being back at NASA’s Cape Canaveral, Florida space centre earlier this year for the events marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
The story of Apollo 11 and his memories of the Apollo program will be the focus of his talk next week at the Gibsons Public Library.
“It’s hard to believe we pulled that off,” Meyer said. “It was just a bunch of young people like myself – I was 25 for Apollo 11. It was our goal in life to support that and do the best possible job, and so many people did.”
After leaving the Apollo program, Meyer worked on unmanned spacecraft.
The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were the last missions Meyer was involved in, but he was also launch operations manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission in 1997 that sent the first, and so far only, spacecraft into orbit around Saturn.
“Cassini was one of the most remarkable missions, and it was my highlight other than the manned missions,” he said. “It was the largest, most expensive satellite ever launched and it was just an amazing endeavour… They’ve made so many discoveries on that mission and there were so many nations involved.”
Meyer’s presentation at the Gibsons Public Library is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11. The library has asked that people pre-register at 604-886-2130 in order to ensure adequate seating.
You can hear our full interview with Jim Meyer on Coast Reporter Radio, available at www.coastreporter.net/audio
