when they came-- on, gene shoemaker and flagstaff , he talked to nasa and some other scientists and said, if we are going to plan to send people to the moon, we should do more than just plan the flight and come back. we should do science. what a better way to learn about the origins of our planet and who we are then by studying another body in the solar system, similar to ours, kind of our partner, as it were. in january 1963, the next nine astronauts, the second group that included neil armstrong, frank gorman, and others, they came out here on a very cold day, flew into flagstaff airport -- they flew onto planes, in case one crashed, not all the astronauts would have perished. in and these guys were rock stars. they were met by the mayor, they were met by cheering fans wanting autographs, but then they went to a meteor crater. theou are going to go to moon and do geology around this pockmarked, cratered area of the moon, why not study and prepare for that in the best preserved impact crater there is, which is meteor crater, right down the road from where we are at lowell observatory. t

when they came on, gene shoemaker here in flagstaff, who tought astrophysics here flagstaff to repair for this mission, he talked to nasa and some other scientists and said, if we are going to plan to send people to the moon, we should do more than just plan the flight and come back. we should do science. what a better way to learn about the origins of our planet and who we are then by studying another body in the solar system very similar to ours, kind of our partner, as it were. and so in january 1963, the next nine astronauts, it's the second group that included neil borman, andrank others. they came out here on a very cold day, flew into flagstaff airport -- they flew on two planes, in case one crashed, not all the astronauts would have perished. they flew in and these guys were rock stars. they were met by the mayor, they were met by cheering fans wanting autographs, but they went to media crater. if you are going to go to the moon and do geology around this pockmarked, cratered area of the moon, why not study and prepare for that in the best preserved impact crater there is, whi