September 11-17, 2003

mixpicks

Story Musgrave

by Juliet Fletcher

For a scholar who's seen the billion-years-old earth and its galaxy from behind a cabin window, it must be pretty funny to be considered a senior in his 60s. But Story Musgrave probably realizes that, to everyone else, it seems he's packed a colossal amount into one lifetime. Primarily, he's an astronaut -- having joined NASA in 1961 and remaining alone in having flown on five shuttles -- but his route to that goal was tenacious: dropping out of high school before graduation; learning how to fly planes on a neighbor's farm in Massachusetts; and, after returning from service with the Marines, beginning the arduous climb, through education and onto experience, that would earn him six diplomas (including his doctorate of medicine from Columbia, and most recently a master of arts from the University of Houston) and an active role in space flights and developments over 30 years.

Still, as may not be common for a former capsule commander for Skylab 3 and 4 with 25-million miles spent in orbit, Musgrave devotes concentration to the observation of the world around us: While in space, he used to carry a notebook of odd experiments to try out -- including studying the behavior of Coca-Cola at zero gravity -- and, since his retirement from NASA in 1997, has spent time imbuing audiences with his knowledge and meteoric enthusiasm about space, as he will in Horsham this Tuesday. So even if you have only a little in common with this astronaut/literature student or this surgeon/pilot/poet, if you listen carefully, you'll find he's talking right to you.

Story Musgrave, Tue., Sept. 16, 8 p.m., $25, Hatboro-Horsham High School Performing Arts Theater, 899 Horsham Rd., Horsham, 215-672-1023 , www.hhef.org.

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