Heinz History Center adds collection highlighting local astronaut
By GARRETT BEHANNA
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Pittsburgh area astronaut will be highlighted in a new collection set forth by the Heinz History Center.
Jerome “Jay” Apt is a Pittsburgh native and a 1967 graduate of Shady Side Academy, where he would later join NASA in 1980, working for its Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and as a flight controller at Johnson Space Center before his selection as an astronaut candidate, according to a press release from the History Center.
The collection is available for public research beginning this week, which marks the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Apt (seen blow) witnessed the launch of the Apollo 11 mission on July 16, 1969, at Cape Canaveral, photographing the event for Modern Rocketry magazine, a publication he helped found while at Harvard. Apt’s press pass and photos of the Apollo 11 launch are included in the collection, the press release added.
Additionally, Apt flew on four space missions and logged more than 800 hours in space.
The collection details various points of Apt’s life and career, from his upbringing in Pittsburgh, his career at NASA, his best-selling book, “Orbit,” and as director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History from 1997-2000.
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