More than half a century after the first human landed on the moon, the golden age of space exploration continues to inspire as one of the world’s biggest ideas. Niche Texas press Stony Creek Publishing just published a moving book that reveals one of the most unique friendship narratives of NASA’s Apollo program. That’d be The Barber, The Astronaut, and The Golf Ball.
Its Houston authors, trailblazing attorney Barbara Radnofsky and her physician husband Ed Supkis, have a unique window into the story. The couple’s late fathers Matthew Radnofsky and Daniel Supkis as the book dedication reco9unts were: “lifelong friends who worked together and conspired together at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center Division of Crew Services.” The astronaut in the book title is Alan Shepard, the first American in space; the barber, Clear Lake-based Carlos Villagomez, who cut all the early astronauts’ hair; and the golf ball, is possibly one of three Commander Shepard hit on his Apollo 14 mission, making him the first man to golf on the Moon.
“The book is about friendship,” Barbara Radnofsky tells PaperCity. “If I had one word for the whole thing, it’s about love and friendship. People don’t like to talk about love between friends, but that’s what it is.
“It’s a wonderful kind of love and Carlos and Shepard, by all accounts, were best of friends.”
Hitting It Out-of-this-World
In the book, Carlos Villagomez recounts the day Shepard came to his barbershop for a haircut following his Apollo 14 mission in 1971 looking “like a firecracker had gone off.” During this visit, Shepard gifted Villagomez, a Navy combat veteran, a signed golf ball and told him to keep it safe.
The two never discussed if the golf ball made an out-of-this-world trip along with Shepard. Written as a love letter to the history of space exploration, Radnofsky and Supkis investigate the golf ball’s origins with the help of Villagomez, Shepard’s family, space experts and more.
Radnofsky explains how at the end of his space walk on the moon, Shepard used two golf balls, failing to hit the first and then successfully knocking the second “miles and miles and miles” away. Or so he claimed to the NASA scientists in Houston watching his mission.
“The real question is, if Shepard had missed that second shot, did he have the foresight once he realized how hard it was going to be to play lunar golf — much harder than one could imagine in a spacesuit and with a big helmet — would he have brought a third ball,” Radnofsky says.
Some questions remain out of this world.
You can see the award-winning documentary accompanying the book with a panel, Q &A and book signing. Panelists include Jonathan Richards (documentarian and aeronautical engineer), Rob Pearlman (founder and editor of collectSPACE and space historian) and Barbara Radnofsky (author) with it moderated by Herb Baker, longtime NASA Procurement specialist. The event is set for this Saturday, January 18, at Lone Star Flight Museum, 11551 Aerospace Avenue with the panel starting at 11 am, the film showing at 11:45 am and book signing following. NASA heroes will be the special guests, including those mentioned in the book. The mystery autographed golf ball also will be on view. The panel and film screening are included with museum admission. Books ($22.95) will be available for purchase at Lone Star Flight Museum Gift Shop. Get more details here.
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