North Medford, Ore. – A NASA “living legend” is in town. Today Dr. Norman Chaffee visited with students at North Medford High School, and tonight you can hear more about his time sending people to space.
Dr. Chaffee was with NASA for over 30 years. He’s worked on various space missions including the Gemini, and most notably, the Apollo mission that landed Neil Armstrong on the moon.
Dr. Chafee was brought to Oregon with the help of the JPL museum in Stayton that houses different space artifacts. They travel to cities in Oregon to educate students and adults about space and the work that goes into astronaut missions.
North Medford students said that today’s talk wasn’t just educational it was also inspiring.
“It was like cool I could be apart of this in the next five or ten years and it was really cool and inspiring,” North Medford Senior, Spencer Charles said.
“So what I’m trying to do is make them aware of the opportunity to have a career that’s exciting and fun and rewarding,” Dr. Norman Chaffee said.
Dr. Chaffee will visit three more schools in southwest Oregon before concluding his tour. He’s already been to the Willamette Valley, Bend, La Pine and Klamath Falls. Dr. Chaffee said they’ve already reached over 1100 kids and 250 adults.
He’s also giving a public talk tonight back at North Medford High School at 7pm at the planetarium.
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