If you missed the August 11 meeting, you may be left behind when the rest of us go to Mars. But in the terrestrial meantime, it's business as usual for our Club. Jim Hartman opened the meeting with an invocation dedicated to Nancy Crawford's devotion to the memory of Keith Deisenroth, Kathy "Kat" Anderson led the pledge and Virginia Butler encouraged us to ask in song that "God Bless America". Julia Parton's guest was Eddie, a senior from Peninsula High, and Suzy Zimmerman's guests were Susan and Mike Grimshaw. Bruce and Lynn Attig invited our speaker, Col. Lee Rosen, USAF from SpaceX in Hawthorne, the world's fastest growing launch provider. After Kjell Hellberg finished the guest introductions, Duncan Sutton led our "Welcome Song".
Announcements included Harry Kitter politely but firmly asking for Educator of the Year sponsors, and Greg Sparkman asking for potential poster locations for the 2018 Beer & Wine Fest. Pres. Lynne Neuman announced this month's Wednesday Nite Live will be on Thursday, 8/24 at the Strand Brewery in Torrance, where we will be honoring the Switzer Center. Virginia Butler stated that next month's Wednesday Nite Live will be dedicated to short timers Kjell and Cheryl Hellberg.
Kat Anderson touted the Sept. 23 Barbershop Quartet Concert at Carpenter PAC at Long Beach State, and yours truly mentioned the Dixieland sessions each 2nd Sunday of the month from 1 to 5 pm at the K of C Hall, 214 Ave I in Riviera Village. Tickets are still available for the RI Foundation Dinner Oct. 28. The raffle winners were Messrs. Shellberg and Moon.
Our SpaceX speaker Col. Rosen is VP for Customer Operations and Integration, where so far 70 space missions have been booked. Their 5,000 employees have created the Falcon 9 rocket, 12 feet in diameter and 225 feet tall with 1.5 million pounds of thrust. The new Falcon Heavy rocket will be 27 feet across and produce 3 million pounds of thrust. The rockets are re-used (up to 10 times) after they land on a target drone ship at sea. Currently in the works is a Dragon capsule to relay cargo to and from the International Space Station. Next, SpaceX plans to send 100 people to Mars (we will pass around a clipboard). Visit Spacex.com for launch viewing info at Vandenberg AFB.
Respectfully submitted,
John Schuricht