Guenter Wendt, the legendary pad leader who often was the last person astronauts saw before going into space, died at his home Monday morning in Merritt Island, Fla, within a few miles of NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

James Webb garnered tremendous praise for his management acumen as NASA’s administrator during the race to space and the moon.

Beamed back to Earth from afar, the early images of space exploration were often grainy, usually black-and-white, and sometimes accompanied by static and intermittent sound that provided viewers with glimpses of life aboard a rocket ship.

Think of them as the first reality show stars. Their adventures transfixed the nation, then the planet. They were the first generation of astronauts, and when they reached for the sky and left footprints on the moon, we watched in awe.

By ISOLDE RAFTERY Tiffani Pekkala, 13, of Liberty Middle School in Camas designed a pennant that was one of six U.S. finalists in a NASA competition. The winner, drawn by a New Jersey student, will fly aboard a shuttle in August.