| The
following article appeared in the November 2003 issue of
Boca Raton Magazine
Rick Newman - Space Man
By
Sar Perlman
Boca Magazine Staff Writer
Posted
November
1,
2003
By the age of 13,
Richard Newman had exhibited in every science fair in his native New
York state and hosted a children's science show at a Boston television
station. He began accumulating fossils, bugs, geodes and even electric
cars - anything and everything related to science.
In 1999, he
ratcheted up his collecting after logging onto E-Bay. There it was, an
authentic Russian high altitude suit. He had to have it.
After that, Newman
was on the buyer list of every space agency he could contact. Now the
owner of a video (and DVD) company, he owns space artifacts including
flown parts of a NASA space shuttle, a functional NASA meteor
detection and analysis system from the late '70s, a MIR space station
window, a flight suit worn by cosmonaut Leonid Kizim, MIR's first
commander, a glove worn by the first Asian cosmonaut, a rare Russian
SOKOL KV-2 space suit, as well as a variety of other equipment, space
suits, head gear and undergarments from different countries. All the
pieces are authentic, used by NASA or another space agency in space
exploration.
Then there are the
mannequins of odd sizes he's also had to acquire to fit the space
suits, which were custom-made to fit the cosmonaut or astronaut.
A good portion of
the collection is on display at the South Florida Science Museum.
"I'd much rather own these items and have them on display in a
museum than have another collector hoard them and keep them hidden in
their house," say's Newman, 47 of Boca Raton. "It gives me
great pleasure to see kids and adults alike look at these artifacts
and say, "Wow, that's cool!" and learn about science and
space."
For more
information, call (561) 750-7000 or visit:
www.HighTechScience.org
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