Eight astronauts commemorate air races, lunar landing

RENO, Nev. - Eight astronauts touched down here this week on the 30th anniversary of the first moon walk to salute the National Championship Air Races, where some of the world's best pilots race vintage aircraft at speeds over 400 mph.

The races, which run Thursday through Sunday, match former top guns, astronauts and other ex-military pilots in World War II and Korean War vintage planes as well as more modern aircraft in time trials over northern Nevada.

Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Curtis Brown were on hand Wednesday to help open the Heros of Flight Space Museum in downtown Reno and to honor three school pupils who won a "Name Your Hero of Flight" essay contest.

Brown, the commander of space shuttle Discovery on next month's scheduled mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, couldn't pass up the chance to note he was a high school sophomore when Cernan made the final moon walk.

"I'm one of those ancient astronauts and wannabe racers," Cernan said.

Brown competed two years ago in the powerful Unlimited class at the Reno races. He is grounded this year because of the scheduled Oct. 28 shuttle launch. He hopes to be back in the skies north of Reno next year.

Brown also commanded last fall's Discovery flight with Sen. John Glenn on board. He said he was six when Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

Cernan, his flowing shock of pure white hair a marked contrast to Brown's dark regulation-length clip, followed through on the age issue for the school pupils in the audience.

"If we can take a 77-year-old into space, why can't we take a 17-year-old?" he asked. "Put them on the space station for a month. Let them determine whey we should go to Mars.

"Without a long-term goal like Mars, what have we got to look forward to?"

Cernan, whose book, "The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Space Race" came out in March, said he should have added the words "for now" to the part about being the last man on the moon.

"Somewhere there is a young boy or a young girl who is going to take that honor away from me," he said.

While looking to the future, Cernan also reflected on the past, praising the pilots who flew the vintage planes in wartime.

"I had the opportunity to do what I did in space because of those who preceded me," he said. "We've always built on what we did in the past."

Along with Brown and Cernan, former astronauts Bill Anders, Joseph Engle, Robert "Hoot" Gibson, Gibson's wife Rhea Seddon, Richard Gordon and Jim Lovell are grand marshals for this year's air races.

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