Palisadian's Astronaut Grandson Participates in Latest NASA Flight

By Danielle Gillespie, Staff Writer

2009-12-03
When Palisadian Gabrielle Bresnik gathered among family to watch her step-grandson's shuttle launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, she wished her late husband could be there.

  'I thought about him in that moment, and I thought how proud he would be of his grandson,' said Bresnik, the widow of longtime Palisadian Albert L. Bresnik, who died in 1993 at age 79 and was the personal photographer of famed aviator Amelia Earhart.

  Albert's grandson Randy Bresnik was one of six NASA astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station from November 16-27 as part of the STS-129 mission.

  Randy, who grew up in Santa Monica, served as the flight engineer for the ascent portion of the flight and performed two space walks on his first trip to space. While aboard Shuttle Atlantis, Randy celebrated the birth of his daughter, Abigail Mae, on November 21. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in Houston.

  The purpose of the mission was to deliver spare parts and supplies to the station as well as bring home astronaut Nicole Stott, who had spent three months in space.

  'Randy wanted to pay tribute to his grandfather,' Bresnik said, so he borrowed a photograph of Albert from her as well as Earhart's lucky scarf from the Ninety-Nines Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City to take with him on the mission.

  Earhart always wore her multicolored scarf on long-distance flights, but for some reason did not wear it on that ill-fated trip in 1937, when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

  Albert, who owned a camera shop on Swarthmore Avenue, nearly accompanied Earhart on that trip, but there was not enough room for his camera equipment. The photos he took of her before she left were later published in the book 'Last Flight.'