Young Katherine Johnson (Family Comic Friday)

This is the second of humorous volumes on the lives of notable figures from history during their youth I've recently read by the French cartoonist Augel. This selection was chosen for Black History Month as it features noted math genius Katherine Johnson. Her work as a 'human calculator ' for NASA helped the space program win the race to the moon with the Apollo 11 landing in 1969. She was even personally requested by John Glenn to confirm his contradictory calculations during his historic Friendship 7 orbital mission in 1962.

Just like with the Agatha Christie volume, there's interactive activities for readers. Instead of solving mysteries, your tasked with solving mathematical word problems. Math not being my strong suit, I prefer solving a crime over doing algebra any day. Though I will begrudgingly admit that if I had paid a tiny bit more attention, I would have correctly solved more of those problems than I did. Though let's be honest, Augel cheated a little in that problem involving the blocks!

You explore both humorous as well as thoughtful situations in this look at Katherine Johnson. You'll experience her life as a young black girl in the segregated mountains of West Virginia as well as the stigma of being a female who's life interest were in the male dominated fields of science and math. Katherine also explored the limits of her imagination with her beloved pet chicken Luncinda, and her celestial friend, the Moon. 

Young Katherine Johnson was an adorable book. Another success by Augel. Teachers will love this book as the last 10 or so pages are a lesson guide for Black History Month, science and math and astronomy and physics. Parents and guardians will love how the young readers in their lives will learn and be entertained through reading. And maybe they'll want to do some of the extra activities and science experiments in the back of this graphic novel! There's potential for fun for the whole class AND family!

Worth Consuming!

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 137

 

 For today's A Madman Turns 40, we look at Wernher Von Braun. The Father of Rocket Science passed away on this day in 1977. 

Von Braun, in civilian clothes along with high ranking
Nazi officials during a rocket test, 1941.

     Von Braun is controversial figure. He developed Nazi Germany's rocket program, in particular, the very nasty V2 rocket. Von Braun also used Jewish slave labor to build the deadly tools of World War II against the Allied forces. When the US government announced in 1945 that they had assigned the rocket scientist and his associates to America in hopes of boosting our defense programs, many people were up at arms.

     Von Braun did maintain throughout his life that he was not a Nazi. He would state that he was forced to join. Failure to do so could have jeopardize not only his life but that of his family or friends. In 1946, the German would also convert to evangelical Christianity and renounce his part in the Nazi war effort. From that day forward, he would also refuse to participate in the production of American weapons. 

Von Braun surrendering to Allied agents during the
last days of WW2. He had broken his arm in a car accident a few days prior.

      Von Braun's non-violent new way of science actually wasn't too upsetting to the US military. They were in the beginning days of space exploration and actually jumped at the chance to have Von Braun head up that program. Plus, if the Army could turn his space exploration rockets into weapons later on- it was a win-win. (Although now more of dove than a hawk, the scientist did develop ideas for orbital defense against the Russians during the Cold War. Back then, a good defense against Communism wasn't considered war-like but a part of everyday survival.)

The scientist celebrating the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon,
July 1969.

      Thanks for Werhner Von Braun's efforts in the field of rocketry, the US won the space race. He helped create the Saturn V rocket that would provide enough thrust for American astronauts to enter the stratosphere. Later he would become the director of the Apollo Program, resulting in a manned moon landing in July, 1969.

       About three years later with his mission accomplished, Von Braun retired from NASA. He would work in the private sector for a few years before ultimately having to retire for good due to failing health. A life-time smoker, Von Braun would battle cancer a couple of times. Finally in 1977, he succumbed to pancreatic cancer.

       The world lost a science superstar that day. His work with rockets would go on to inspire countless TV and movies about flying rockets to the farthest reaches of space. Eventually, those shows would inspire a little-known director in Southern California to create a film about wars in space. The rest would be Madman history.

      So that's my look at my birth year for today. Come back soon when I'll discover another glimpse at my favorite year.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 31

  Upon doing research for today's article, I found a photograph and an article that answered a long-standing mystery I've had: Whatever happened to the space shuttle Enterprise?

Art Rogers, 1977.

   I came across the above photograph taken by the Los Angeles Times on January 31, 1977. It shows a rider on a horse looking on as the Enterprise is being towed to Edwards Air Force Base. Just a few months earlier, the shuttle was in Palmdale, where members of the Starship Enterprise from the cult classic series Star Trek were on hard for the christening. 

Actors from the original Star Trek TV series
on hand for the Enterprise's debut. Sept. 1976.

     The idea behind the space shuttle was that NASA could finally have a reusable ship instead of having to build a new module for their space missions. Fans of Star Trek wrote in by the thousands and demanded that the first shuttle be named after the ship used by Capt. Kirk, Spock, and Scotty. So, if the Enterprise was the first space shuttle, was was the Columbia the first shuttle to be flown into space?

Another space shuttle Enterprise mystery:
Why wasn't it on the wall of the Enterprise D conference room?

    Well, thanks to this photo and article, I finally got my answer: the Enterprise was never used for actual missions! Instead, while as Edwards, the Enterprise was used as a prototype for heat shield testing. Enterprise also wasn't equipped with actual rocket engines. But that doesn't mean that the Enterprise never got off the ground. At least 3 times in 1977, the Enterprise was used to practice free flight and landing procedures. Sadly, it just never entered the stratosphere.

Aerial photo of the Enterprise during on of it's
free flight missions in 1977.

    Today, the Enterprise is housed at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City.  It's permanently been retired and will probably never fly since NASA grounded the Space Shuttle program just a few years ago. But it's viewed by hundreds daily and hopefully continues to inspire the next generation of astronauts and space explorers. Who knows, maybe the next generation of space vehicles will carry on the Enterprise name.

The Enterprise being towed to it's latest home,
the Intrepid Museum.

      Well, today's journey to 1977 didn't commemorate anything special or particularly noteworthy. But I did solve a mystery that I've wondered about for years. Hey, that's just part of the fun of A Madman Turns 40...

The Enterprise today.

      Live Long and Prosper!