Mim & I went to four space shots together - Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15 & Apollo 17. None of them launched in the sort of messy weather Apollo 12 lifted off into, yet none were as magical.
Over the four space shots, the two of us became good friends with the Harkins. On our last visit down, Apollo 17 (the one & only Apollo night launch), we brought a gift - a music box, Snoopy in astronaut gear sitting atop his dog house "moon rocket," playing Fly Me To The Moon.
Snoopy actually beat Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin to the moon. According to the March 1969 Peanuts comic strip, he landed four months before the the two 2-legs! (I love the cartoon showing him returning from his adventure - Snoopy confides to the reader that you know he's coming back because he's facing the other way!)
Confession - until getting to know Jim Harkins, we hadn't a clue that Snoopy's relationship with NASA went back to 1967. After the Apollo 1 tragedy, NASA officials asked Charles Schulz if they could use Snoopy as their safety mascot. Schulz helped design the Silver Snoopy award, a medal presented to aerospace workers who made outstanding contributions toward safer spaceflight operations.
How many out remember that the Apollo 10 dubbed their command module Charlie Brown & the lunar lander Snoopy? Or know that NASA used Snoopy as the name for the lunar lander during final rehearsals for Apollo 11's historic landing?
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