Fred Rogers Meets Astronaut Al Worden

​My husband was a teacher for 32 years in Joplin, Missouri and created a website over 15 years to document his classes, his adventures, and research.  He has many posts about things related to space exploration.  These posts have been recreated from his website, I strongly encourage you to take some time and browse his website.

5-16-2026

NASA's Apollo program was hot when I was in elementary school.  In fact, one of the first memories I have is watching the moon landing on a black-and-white TV in 1969 when I was not yet four years old.

At that time, I also watched Sesame Street and a companion show called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  I don't remember a lot of specifics from the show, but it certainly left an endearing impression on me.  My wife probably doesn't remember as much about Fred Rogers as I do, since she is younger, but she does have a tremendous interest in the space program, and especially, the Apollo missions.

Here is where we merge the two:  Astronaut Al Worden (the namesake of the Endeavour Scholarship, the special Space Camp program my wife will attend in July as a teacher) made a handful of appearances on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  Below are some short scenes as he represented the program on Mr. Rogers' show in the 1970s.