Space Camp!!

Second leg of my vacation

After a short recharging recess, I am back to typing up on the plane about the second part of my vacation. I do this while flying over beautiful land and listening to U2's "Beautiful Day." :-) I love love love this song and it is probably my all-time favorite song. Okay, now back to the second leg, but a little explaining at first. 

I have a twitter account and on that twitter account I follow NASA and Space Camp. Each group had an opportunity for their followers to register and possibly be selected to go to their respective sights for the last shuttle launch. I was fortunate enough to be 1 of 16 to Space Camp. This was a very exciting thought for me because I love the movie. (If you have not seen, go watch it NOW.) I arrived in Huntsville Wednesday evening ready to meet my fellow tweeters. We all met the next morning and it was amazing to know that everyone of us had a love for space! The first stop was to get a badges at security and then begin our tour of Redstone Arsenal. This facility is on an army base and we were told we were the first group allowed in like this since before 9/11, talk about amazing. I learned about test firings on huge stands, the payload operation center, astronaut pee, and friction welding. All was incredibly interesting and educational. After the tour we headed back to each a delicious lunch of BBQ and listen to Ed Huckbee talk about his amazing time at NASA and the real space cowboys (the original seven astronauts.) We were all given books written by him and he also autographed them. The rest of the afternoon was filled with a mission overview, mission practice, and the incredibly fun Multi Axis Trainer and 1/6 gravity chair. The MAT chair was my favorite. Also a quick note on the mission, the crew I was with was the Discovery crew. I sat Pilot and had a blast. (No pun intended.) Later on that day, we were told that the whichever crew was practicing in Discovery (my group) was using the same mission orbiter that they filmed in the movie Space Camp. So in essence, I was sitting where Lea Thompson and Kate Capshaw sat for the movie. How cool is that?!?!?! 

Alright, that evening we were told we were having dinner that in the event we would be going to Mars would be prepared with only those items of food.  It was okay. Astronaut Don Thomas spoke with us during dinner and we all had the chance to get an autograph and picture. Day two, mission and launch day!! We started the day by talking with a few members of the Space Camp leadership team. Great people! They gave us their cards and I hope there will be cause to use them in the future. The mission was a great deal of fun! I still think a pilot I missed some switches that were suppose to be switched, but it was a ton of fun to do and I would love to have more time to actually play around with everything. After our mission we headed over to the IMAX to watch the launch. Space Camp even let us keep on our orange flight suits we wore to the mission over to watch the launch. I must admit, I felt pretty cool! ;-) It was packed when we got over there and we actually almost had it out with some teachers about our seats, but we eventually got to sit. Astro Don was answering questions and giving us the 411 on what exactly was going down. We has a brief scare at t-00:31 when they thought the tower had not cleared fully. Once it was determined it had, the countdown continued. It was amazing seeing the shuttle launch with so many people. You could just feel the excitement! After we got out of our flight suits we kind of wandered around the museums and spent money at the gift shops before I headed back to the airport to catch my flights home. 

I am once again back on a plane, my final plane ride for this vacation at least. This ride is not nearly as cool as what STS-135 (Atlantis) experienced today, but such is life. I look out my plane window and can look up at the moon and only wander right now where the shuttle is at in their orbit and how amazing it must be to be where they are. I have been truly inspired in this leg of my vacation. I know that I will probably personally never go to space, but I am encouraged to follow my own dreams and to keep persevering. Maybe I am a bit naive, but is there a huge problem with just a little bit? I do not think so. I like to think by having just a little bit that the sky is not the limit to any dream. Questions? Comments? :-) 

By the time I post this I will be back in my room and getting ready to return to a regular schedule, something I am actually kind of looking forward to. Tomorrow, 8 miles for the half training schedule and work in the afternoon. 

It has been a wonderful trip and I am so thankful I got to experience EVERYTHING I did on this trip!! I hope I have not bored you all too much! Have a great weekend!!!


S.