The launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle was one of the most watched events on the internet ever. It is also igniting a new passion for space exploration in generations of people; some who grew up in the golden age of spaceflight, and others who may someday go to Mars.
In the attached stories, 7 Eyewitness News Reporter Ed Reilly talks with Hugh Neeson, 84, who was a former vice president at the old Bell Aerospace Plant in Wheatfield. In a career that started in 1955 and spanned 45 years, Neeson saw incredible developments in aerospace technology. Those developments would result in the Apollo Moon and Space Shuttle Programs.
Ed then went to the Harry F. Abate Elementary School in Niagara Falls to see what 5th grade students in the enrichment program thought of the launch. Students in this group had submitted formal proposals to NASA for consideration as experiments on the International Space Station just a few months ago.
For the kids, seeing a Tesla car orbited in space was something that really caught their attention (The car was a test payload that carried a mannequin driver in a spacesuit).
You can hear more in Ed's reports.
