ALAMOGORDO -- The U.S. Forest Service has announced Thursday,...
Robby Gaines demonstrates the position used when landing in zero gravity to students at Grand Heights Early Childhood Center Wednesday morning. Gaines, an engineering graduate from Texas A&M and construction engineer for more than 25 years, visited the kindergarten to impart stories of his time as a “pad rat” at Cape Canaveral, where he prepared the pad for the launching of spy satellites and from which the Mars Exploration and Pluto New Horizons spacecrafts launched. Gaines is the vice president of development and on the board of directors for the National Space Society and is a member of the Planetary Society and founding member of the Challenger Learning Center. He was also the landing event chairman for the Mars Polar Lander at Rice University. This year, he was named one of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Solar System Ambassadors, one of only 277 in the world. Teresa Lemon – Daily Press
