(Satellite Beach, FL.) - A former elected official locally watched SpaceX go up to bring home the two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station for nine months.
Rich Mrozinski of Rolling Prairie viewed the launch from his second home in Florida about 15 miles from Cape Canaveral where SpaceX went up on Friday, March 14.
The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, splashed down Tuesday evening in the Gulf America near Tallahassee on the opposite side of Florida from where Mrozinski lives during the winter.
Mrozinski said he witnessed SpaceX race toward the heavens with practically a bird’s eye view from the balcony of his condominium along the Atlantic Ocean.
“We watched them leave to go bring those astronauts back. Thank God they finally got back home,” he said.
Mrozinski served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War.
After returning from the war in the early 1970’s, Mrozinski said he was assigned to what’s now called Patrick Space Force base near Cape Canaveral as a staff sergeant whose job was connected to the Apollo 16 mission to the moon.
He was responsible for getting confidential information on paperwork coming in on teletype machines into the hands of the proper authorities.
“A lot of complicated, confidential stuff. It was all pretty exciting,” he said.
Mrozinski said he met the Apollo 16 astronauts John W. Young, Charles M. Duke, Jr. and Thomas K. Mattingly, II, while they were in training and was on the beach about a mile away when they launched from Cape Canaveral into orbit.
A few months later, Mrozinski came home as a civilian and went to work for NIPSCO as a high voltage electrician until retiring over a decade ago.
Given his military experience and connections to the space program, Mrozinski said he was emotional watching the once stranded astronauts emerge from their space capsule after returning to earth. He described his feelings as both proud and happy.
“It’s an experience of a lifetime they’ll never forget and they’ll be heroes for now on. It’s very cool. Very cool, indeed,” he said.
Mrozinski said he has also watched from the balcony of his condominium dozens of other launches during the day and night for different missions like sending satellites into orbit in recent months.
“I’ve been up at one o’clock in the morning to watch them. I just never get enough of it,” he said.
Mrozinski after serving two terms as a La Porte County Commissioner decided not to run for reelection in November. He also previously served two terms on the La Porte County Council.
