EMMIE BOESE
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Space Shuttle astronaut Dr. Tom Jones visited the Kansas Cosmosphere on Friday, Feb. 2 for an afternoon book signing of his Smithsonian published book, Space Shuttle Stories. Jones said it was a 'natural place to bring his book.'
Space Shuttle Stories gives firsthand astronaut accounts from all 135 Space Shuttle missions. Jones himself has been on four missions during his career which are STS-59, of April 1994, STS-68, September-October 1994, STS-80, November-December 1996 and STS-98, February 2001. Jones was a mission specialist on each shuttle except for STS-68, because he was payload commander.
The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame inductee, said he wanted to be an astronaut since he was a boy, so his first mission was a boyhood dream come true. Jones was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1990.
"So I remember going past 50 miles high on the shuttle endeavor, as we were rocketing to space and my commander called down from the intercom and he says Tom, we just passed 50 miles," Jones said. "Congratulations, you are an astronaut. So that was a really heart warming moment and then when we got to space and I saw the Earth out the window for the first time, tears came to my eyes because I realized after 29 years, I was finally there."
Part of the 135 space shuttle stories, recounted in Jones book, also include the 1986 Challenger STS-51L mission and the 2003 Columbia STS-107 mission. Both missions combined, resulted in the death of 14 astronauts. Jones said he gathered information from both missions through interviews and an email.
Jones said the seven crew members who passed away during the Columbia mission were close friends of his so it was a personal loss. He said by 2003, NASA was better about doing extensive videoing with their astronauts but he said there were hours of tape do go through.
"So while I was searching, I found an email, that my friend Laurel Clark had sent down from the Shuttle Columbia about two days before they came home and were lost. "So Laurel, was just writing to her friends and family and she was saying hi everybody I just wanted to tell you how things are going up here and give you some idea of what we are all feeling like and so she wrote a letter home. And it was so full of joy, and inspiration and awe at the sights she was seeing outside and happiness at working with her crew mates and getting some great science done, that it basically spoke to all of the crew members. And so rather than seven voices for Columbia, I put in the book, only Laurel's email. I asked her husband for permission to use it, and so she spoke for her crew. It was a perfect casualization."
With the Challenger mission being from 1986, Jones said he had to do some more research to include it in Space Shuttle Stories.
"So to get their voices, I had to go back to press interviews that the Challenger astronauts gave," Jones said. "Sometimes it was in association with their upcoming flight, sometimes they were working, giving an interview to NBC let's say. I found on the internet, a video interview of them talking to the reporter so I had to search around quite a bit to get a snippet of the voices of each the seven crew members. That enabled me to get all seven Challenger crew members into the book with just a little bit of what they were looking forward to about the flight."
It was Jones first time to visit the Kansas Cosmosphere, which he said he's wanted to visit for the past 25 years.
"It's a world class, unique collection of space artifacts and history," Jones said. "And I'm a space historian by hobby, and this is a place where I'm a kid in a candy store."
Jones got the idea to publish his 6th adult book right before the COVID-19 pandemic began. It was published in October of 2023. In addition to accounts of all 135 missions, Space Shuttle Stories also features more than 600 photos from NASA archives, data about the mission, crew, launch, landing, duration and highlights and more.
More about Jones published books, and his career as an astronaut is available at astronauttomjones.com.
Jones also visited The Clayworks at Disability Supports the morning of Friday, Feb. 2. Jones signed clients artwork that is inspired by the Kansas Cosmosphere.
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