Kuiper does a pre-flight stretch before boarding Air Force One* for a world tour.
Thank you @museumofflight for allowing Kuiper to make a special visit before hours! This is one of our favorite planes at the museum. During your visit, you can walk through the inside and even check out the doggy door LBJ put in for his beagles Him and Her.
On this day in 1969, @astromichaelcollins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin boarded this very plane and embarked on a whirlwind global “Giant Step” tour. In just 38 days, they visited all these places, returning to DC on November 5th:
Mexico City, Mexico
Bogota, Columbia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rio de Janeio, Brazil
Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Madrid, Spain
Paris, France
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Brussels, Belgium
Oslo, Norway
Bonn, Germany
West Berlin, Germany
London, England
Rome, Italy
Vatican
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Ankara, Turkey
Kinshasa, Zaire
Bombay, India
Dacca, Bangladesh
Bangkok, Thailand
Tehran, Iran
Perth, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Agana, Guam
Seoul, South Korea
Tokyo, Japan
Elmendorf AFB Alaska
What a tour!! Why the asterisk on Air Force One above? Planes only technically use the designation while the president is actually aboard. This plane, SAM 970, served as Air Force One from 1959 to 1962, and was even the first ever jet-powered plane to be used as Air Force One.
JFK replaced SAM 970 in 1962 with SAM 26000, but this plane wasn’t immediately retired from the fleet. It stayed in service until June 1996, carrying vice presidents as well as VIPs. Thus, the plane Kuiper is posing with was often designated “Air Force Two” at the time of the Apollo 11 tour.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, I am excited to announce that in one week Kuiper and I will be embarking on our own grand tour. We will be roadtripping to Washington DC for the 70th International Astronautical Congress!
IAC is only in the US every 20 years or so. It is THE place to be for the latest on space exploration, and on Friday, October 25th, it will be open to the public!! (As Kuiper is not a service dog, he will not be attending the actual event, but I look forward to visiting other sites with him in, around and in transit to DC.)
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3A1Xb4lg7P/