IT WAS the summer of 1969 when Jim Lewis witnessed the launch of Apollo 11, the unforgettable mission that landed on the moon. He was a young lad of 17 then.
His dad, who worked for a Florida newspaper, had obtained a pass for him to watch the momentous event at the Kennedy Space Centre.
“The Saturn V Moon rocket lift-off is still the most exciting rocket launch I have ever seen,” said Lewis, who has produced TV coverage for the launching of at least 150 rockets. He founded Communications Concepts Inc (CCI) in 1978, a Cape Canaveral-based audio-visual company specialising in TV and web production.
But even a TV guy such as Lewis conceded, “television at its best cannot capture the full impact of a rocket launch.”
“When you are at the launch site, the rocket blast off sight and sound literally hit you like a warm sensation and pounding wave in the ocean.”
Since CCI is located close to the Kennedy Space Centre, his company, naturally, has produced TV coverage of rocket launches numerous times.
It was also contracted by the Malaysian Government through Mimos to produce coverage of the Angkasawan mission.
“Your astronaut project could be a great starting point for the Malaysian space programme or it could be a one-time thing, something like how the United States went to the moon and then stopped. Again, the future is what you make of it. The US is now once again working to go back to the moon.”
He loves the space business. “Space is a great business with great people.”
Over the years, Lewis has been enthralled by stories told to him by astronauts.
“Most of the stories are about silly and funny things that they did or had happened to them.”
All that said, it was a statement that Al Warden, who flew around the moon in Apollo 15, that stuck in Lewis’ mind.
“Al said that while he was on the dark side of the moon he could look out at the stars and see them so much more clearly then you could here on earth and it was amazing how many stars there are out there.”
Lewis said that the Malaysian astronaut was so fortunate to go to space. “I would gladly trade places with him,” he said.
Likewise, Malaysian space buffs might also want to switch place with Lewis, whose home is near to where all the action is. For the locals there, watching rocket launches is as regular to them as night and day.
(Janie Johnson, who provides airport transfers to travellers, said she had lost count the number of rocket and shuttle launches that she had seen since moving here three years ago. “I always get a wonderful view as my house is near the launch site,” she said.)
Like most kids who grew up having the Kennedy Space Centre in their backyard, Lewis has unending stories to share.
His family moved near there in 1962, so he has lived 45 years of his life with the space programme.
“In May 1961 when I had just turned nine, I was riding in the car with my parents, brother and sister when the final countdown to America’s First Manned Space launch was announced on the radio.
“My dad pulled the car to the side of the road and listened to the entire mission. It lasted only 15 minutes but it was so cool.”
Florida is also among only three sites in the world that sends people into space; the other two being Kazakhstan and China.
Kennedy Space Centre, which is just 45 minutes from Orlando, has quite an impact on the local community.
“Roads are named after astronauts and space programmes; and there is an ongoing schedule of manned and unmanned launches from what is known as the Space Coast,” said Andrea Farmer, who is public relations manager of the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex.
Children in Florida are more aware of the space programme. All six-grade students would take part in a space week project while seventh grade students had another programme for them.
“There is tremendous pride in the space programme in our community, as more than 14,000 people work at Kennedy Space Centre,” she said.
About 1.5 million visitors from around the world make the trip there annually.
And why shouldn’t they be fascinated? According to its website, it is “the only place on Earth where you can tour launch areas, meet an astronaut, see giant rockets, train in space flight simulators and view a launch.”
It is mankind’s ultimate journey, as the Kennedy Space Centre would say.