Once a Booster

I had an twist of circumstance over brunch today that took me by surprise. I finally was able to make it over to Indika to check out their brunch which turned out to be really good. I was doing my usual reading the paper and just taking it easy this morning but for some reason, the couple at the end of the bar got my attention.

Turns out it was Leland Melvin which I only figured out by overhearing the bartender's conversation. I suppose my NASA connections are not all that far removed. I introduced myself and immediately was connected with somebody from the old family - we of course knew all of the same black astronauts. Totally a good guy and I felt a little bad that I did not know that he was flying on Atlantis in a couple weeks.

I still think about my days in Booster pretty often. If I were to be honest, I would say that I really miss it as those were really good days. No doubt that I am happy with the choice that I made to go back to grad school, but I still miss it. The one thing that I am absolutely proud of is the fact that I was damn good at what I did in the Booster Group. I would like to think that I was one of the best MPS operators, and I would love to work console with the team again. That won't happen but it is still cool to think about those days. Damn was that really ten years ago?