#FlashbackFriday: Blasting Off Through the Exchange’s Connections to the Space Program

Last week’s Flashback Friday about the Exchange’s history in Thailand included a photo of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. With the 55^th anniversary of the lunar landing coming up on July 20, this led us to wonder what other connections the Exchange had to moon landings and the space program. Here’s a chronological look.

Maj. Gen. Edward H. White, Exchange commander from July 1951 to June 1954, was the father of astronaut Ed White, the first American to walk in space. Ed White was a member of the second astronaut class, selected by NASA in September 1962. He was the pilot for Gemini 4, a four-day mission from June 3 to 7, 1965. His spacewalk during the mission lasted 21 minutes. Tragically, Ed White was among the trio of astronauts who was killed in the Apollo 1 fire on Jan. 27, 1967. Grissom Air Reserve Base in Indiana is named in honor of Lt. Col. Virgil “Gus” Grissom, who was also killed in the fire.

From the September 1962 Exchange Post: Astronaut Alan Shepard (left), a Navy commander, drops in to the Vandenberg AFB Exchange snack bar at the US Naval Missile Facility for a cup of coffee and visits with supply officer Cmdr. Richard G. Brown and cafeteria manager Paulyne Douglass. In May 1961, Shepard became the first American in space, traveling to an altitude of 116 statute miles aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. He later commanded the Apollo 14 moon mission from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 1971. In May 2021, Vandenberg Air Force Base was renamed Vandenberg Space Force Base.

From the January 1972 Exchange Post: Exchange associates Marie and Hubert Cope flank Holloman AFB Exchange General Manager James Shannon during a tour of the Sacramento Peak Observatory in southern New Mexico. In an unusual assignment, the Copes served a select clientele in a one-room Exchange at the facility, which was in Sunspot, a village at 9,200-foot elevation in the Sacramento Mountains (the nearest real town was Cloudcroft, 18 miles away). One of the observatory’s missions was to provide the Air Force information on solar flares, which could affect space explorations, and several moon-bound astronauts had visited the facility. Twice a week, merchandise was loaded aboard a truck at Holloman and sent on what was called “the milk run to Sunspot,” where milk was one of the products most in demand at the Exchange.

Apollo-Soyuz Flight, 1975: There are no photos of this, but in 1975, Exchange merchandise was used to support American astronauts who participated in the Apollo-Soyuz flight, a joint mission between the United States and the Soviet Union. James L. Dykes, the Patrick Air Force Base general manager at the time, told the Exchange Post that the base hospital supply branch purchased tennis shoes, socks, T-shirts, washcloths, bath towels and shaving supplies to prepare 18 support kits for testing use at the Houston Space Center. Several of the kits were flown to Hawaii and used by the Apollo crew aboard the recovery ship after their flight. The U.S. commander on that mission, Thomas P. Stafford, was a guest on the March 17, 2022, episode of  the Exchange’s “Chief Chat.” (Stafford passed away on March 18, 2024.) Patrick AFB was renamed Patrick Space Force Base in December 2020.

In the spring of 1982, Space Shuttle Columbia made a landing at White Sands Space Harbor in southern New Mexico. The White Sands and Holloman AFB Exchanges provided food service for spectators, NASA officials and the media at the landing, which was open to the public. Food concessions were also available the previous day, when driving winds led to the postponement of the originally scheduled landing. More than 25,000 people turned out for the first day, but only 6,200 were there the day the landing actually happened.

From the April 1983 Exchange Post: A trio of Edwards Air Force Base associates set up a buffet lunch for the crew that towed Space Shuttle Challenger from Palmdale, Calif., to Edwards.

During Black History Month in February 1985, Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr., the first Black astronaut to go into space, visited the Spangdahlem Exchange. Bluford (pictured with Emmett W. Younginer, Spangdahlem retail manager), flew on the third mission of space shuttle Challenger, the first mission with a night watch and landing.

In September 2020, months after the creation of the Space Force in December 2019, Space Force products made their debut at select Exchanges. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic was still in its first year, the Buckley Air Force Base Exchange reported that the first batch of clothing with the official logo of the newest branch of the Armed Forces sold out within hours. Merchandise included T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweat pants, hats, mouse pads, lanyards, coffee mugs and coins that featured the Buckley logo and the Space Force logo. Buckley AFB was renamed Buckley Space Force Base in June 2021.