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David Sander


Journal Contributor David Sander writes:

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, ten weeks before Apollo 11 lifted off for the Moon, my childhood was essentially devoid of space. The Apollo Program was a fading memory by the time I was old enough to appreciate any of it, and I would have to wait until STS-1 to see a spacecraft leave the Earth as it happened. I followed the Shuttle program avidly, but Apollo would always stay with me.

Seeing "The Space Movie" in 1979 opened my eyes to Apollo, but the first real opportunity to experience it to any appreciable degree was during the Apollo 11 25th anniversary celebrations in 1994. Being a resident of Sydney since 1979, I was in a good location to experience the best of the 25th anniversary celebrations as they happened, which included meeting John Young, and later, Dave Scott. Since then I have gone on to meet other Apollo veterans (both astronauts and those left behind), and learn their stories.

David Sander I have become quite a devotee of Apollo and its loftier goals, and this has affected my own life to a certain degree. Not only am I a contributing regular on the sci.space newsgroups (especially sci.space.history), but in real life I enjoy my own collection of Apollo-related material, from items flown to the Moon, to various reference materials and some memorabilia. I also have my ongoing project of constructing a sort-of functioning replica of an Apollo spacesuit.

As for a career, I am self-employed, starting out in the field of desktop publishing, and now specializing in special visual effects for film, television and print media. I am in the process of making a short film depicting a 'what-if' scenario of space missions to the Moon and Mars using spacecraft designs and mission profiles as presented in the revolutionary space series by Wernher von Braun, Chesley Bonestell, Cornelius Ryan, Willy Ley and others in Collier's magazine in the early-mid 1950's.

Here are links for the film, for my business, and for the spacesuit.