posted 06-15-2009 01:16 AM               

Items that were lent to us included:

• Red Sox Pennant flown aboard the ISS by Sunita Williams (lent by Boston Red Sox organization).

• Bruins ball cap and foam hockey puck, Harvard University baseball cap and sticker lent and flown by Stephanie Wilson.

• Big Papi Red Sox tee shirt, Patriots ball cap lent and flown by Sunita Williams.

• Pair of Red Sox socks, lent and flown by Mike Lopez Alegria.

• Photo of Bob Thirsk wearing a Bruins jersey flying through shuttle pretending he is Bobby Orr scoring the winning goal.

• Wellesley College ball cap lent by Wellesley College president and flown by Pam Melroy.

• MIT ball cap lent and flown by Dan Tani.

I think the most fun was not seeing the items displayed but the hunt for them. There is a picture taken of astronauts Tani, Wilson and Melroy all wearing the ball caps and we had all three displayed. It was fun locating the Red Sox pennant that you see in many of the ISS Exp 14/15 photos (Red Sox had the pennant in a storeroom). Mike LA wearing those red socks also appears. Bob Thirsk, who is up on station now, is a huge Bruins/hockey fan who once took Bobby Orr's (best hockey player ever) Stanley Cup ring and a Bruins Jersey aboard his STS 78 mission. Picture the 1970 photo of Bobby scoring the Stanley Cup goal (flying through the air) and then picture Bob flying through the shuttle. We were even able to get a few items from Sunita Williams who is a die-hard Patriots and Red Sox fan and ran the Boston marathon from space and on the ground. Overall, they were all very generous in their support of the exhibit. Even NASA was easy to work with.

It was a pleasure to put this together and overall the most fun was collecting the items, finding the stories behind them. I would like to thank the Boston Sports Museum, the astronauts and NASA for all their help.

posted 06-15-2009 09:48 AM               

You must have a passion for space, too.