Photograph courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Sharing memories that seemed as fresh today as the events that happened nearly 30 years ago,friends and fans gathered in the Voyager Restaurant at the Mojave Air and Space Port Dec. 17 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the unrefueled and non-stop, around-the-world, record setting flight of the Voyager experimental airplane. Gathered around packed tables, there was barely standing room as they listened to Voyager pilot Dick Rutan, his brother Burt, designer of Voyager, and the world’s first civilian astronaut Mike Melvill and his wife Sally Melvill, as they shared their memories of the historic flight.