On 2nd May we made Bishop Auckland u3a history as our speaker was almost 200 miles away in Prestatyn, North Wales and was using Zoom to talk to us. Chris Winner is Chair of Prestatyn u3a, has been Trustee for Wales, is on the TATTL board, and is Chair of the SiteWorks steering committee. More interestingly she is a keen Egyptologist and runs an Egyptology group in her u3a. Chris is also a space fanatic, was a hippie in her younger days, and is still a Trekkie attending various conventions.

What a treat we had as Chris took us step-by-step through the space programme from Mercury to Apollo with a multitude of slides and photos showing crafts and crews as well as some amazing space and moon photos. Most of us can remember bits here and there but Chris put the whole series of events together for us in a logical, chronological order, and it made for wonderful listening. For most of the 75+ minutes you could hear a pin drop as the audience was so attentive.

The photos below show Chris and the group on the Zoom call plus two of her favourite photos from the many that were displayed. The first is the first manned Gemini flight. Launched March 23rd 1965, with Command Pilot: Gus Grissom, Pilot: John Young the flight lasted 04h 52m 31s. They made 3 earth orbits. John Young is Chris' favourite astronaut. Her second choice she said has to be Earthrise. The crew were the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and earth rise over the lunar horizon with their own eyes.