re: What's the closest you or a family member has been to a part of history?

My dad worked for Brown Engineering (a sub contractor for NASA) in Huntsville in the 1960s. He tested space suits mostly after he graduated as an engineer from Mississippi State (a top 5 engineering school back then only behind MIT and Georgia Tech). Did some underwater testing as well. (He’s got some old test footage that hasnt been viewed since the 1960’s). He also worked on the moon rover some. Some hotshot scientist showed up one day wanting a demonstration of the rover from his team and was warned against it, but it wasn’t designed for earth’s gravity and it got beat up pretty bad.

Also, he knew how difficult it was to move in those early suits so he made the first prototype moon spade and scoop out of some spare metal and fast set plastic that caught the attention of one of the senior engineers. He also met/saw Wernher Von Braun at a clinic getting his flu shot.