The Washington Post has an article highlighting Space Camp’s need to move beyond the Shuttle Program as NASA retires its aging fleet of orbiters.
From the article:
Story Musgrave, a retired NASA astronaut, consulted with Space Camp on the new simulator. Because the capsule and landing vehicle are based on equipment still in early development at NASA, he said, Space Camp had to take more liberties than usual in creating the controls, planning a potential mission and assigning roles to campers.
Robert Pearlman, Space Camp Hall of Fame inductee and CollectSpace editor and founder, made an appearance on the CBS Early Show to discuss the first public appearance of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a NASA ceremony honoring her husband.
Well done, Robert! But, next time, go for a Space Camp polo instead of a suit! Why look respectable when you can promote Space Camp instead? 😉
The 5th Annual Space Camp Hall of Fame had originally been penciled in for August 19th.
As of today, the official date is August 26th.
But wait! There’s more!
From 2004-2010, the USSRC has held its Saturn V Reunion (recently renamed to the “Space Exploration Celebration”) to coincide with the first landing of man on the Moon. Similar plans were in the works for this year, but then a funny thing happened.
Because of the impending collapse retiring of the Space Shuttle program, the Marshall Space Flight Center asked the Space & Rocket Center to delay this year’s Space Exploration Celebration. Had the Space Exploration Celebration been held on or around July 20, it would have run into conflicts with the current scheduled landing of STS-135 and all of the morning post-flight celebrations that will be held to mark this tragedy momentous occasion.
As such, for this year only, the Space Exploration Celebration and the Space Camp Hall of Fame will be combined into one event to be held on August 26, 2011.
Viewing the news from at home or abroad, it would be easy to get the impression that things in Huntsville are worse than they are. While it’s certainly true that some have had there lives absolutely devastated from the tornadoes, most of us are just bored.
Thankfully, water and sewage services were never interrupted, and many (I dare say most) grocery stores in town stayed open with enough on the shelf to keep everyone fed. Marshall Space Flight Center was even ready and waiting to do their part for Endeavour, should she have launched on Friday. If the power is still out on the next attempt, MSFC will still be ready to go!
Dr. von Tiesenhausen is doing just fine too! The impetus to make sure of this came, in fact, all the way from Taiwan. Space Camper and teacher Lynn Hu was at Space Camp during the Tranquility Base Rendezvous and got to meet VonT. Having read about the tornadoes and lack of power, she sent me an email expressing incredible concern for the safety of VonT, his wife, and Space Camp in general.
I emailed Sam Peterson, USSRC employee and one of VonT’s helping hands and she promptly came back with: “They are doing well. Sarah [VonT’s other set of hands] checked in on them Thursday and his son and wife are taking care of them. I have been speaking to them daily. They are bored but good.”
It was quite touching though. Lynn’s concern really embodied the global reach of the Space Camp family. It’s something that, once it becomes a part of you, it never leaves you. If for no other reason then that, we’ll all be fine, no matter how bored we are!
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Space Camp, and Aviation Challenge suspended operations yesterday after storms and tornadoes left the Huntsville area without power.
Because of the extended power outage still going on, Space Camp operations are suspended until at least May 3.
This is pretty unprecedented, but you can’t do a whole lot at Camp without electricity! Granted, I imagine the impact to Aviation Challenge would not be felt as hard. “More Escape & Evasion, kids!”
Let us all hope the kids at Space Camp and the employees and counselors at the U.S. Space & Rocket center make it out of this mess alright!
U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO Deborah Barnhart has been invited by Robert Lightfoot, Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, to attend the launch of STS-134–Endevour’s last–this Friday, April 29, 2011. She’s bound to have one heck of a view for this one!
While in town, she plans to have a meet-and-greet breakfast! If you’re in the area, you absolutely should attend.
Stop by the Facebook event page and note your planned attendance.
If you don’t have Facebook, you’re still welcome. The details are as follows:
When:
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 7:00am
Where:
The entire STS-133 crew is in Huntsville today and at Space Camp right now! From under Pathfinder, crew members Steve Lindsey, Eric Boe, Nicole Stott, Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, and Steve Bowen will talk about their mission and answer questions!
The even will be live streamed over at Space Camp Live!
Head on over there if you see this at around 1:15pm Central Daylight Time.
Tomorrow starts day one of the 2011 Great Moonbuggy Race!
Once again, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will be host to teams of high school and college students from all around the country and the world!
If you’re in the area, I highly recommend coming out the Space & Rocket Center to see the amazing designs the young engineers put together, along with all of the incredible thrills and the occasional spills! You won’t regret it!
But if you can’t make it down to the Space Center, they’ll be broadcasting again this year! From the comfort of your own home, you can enjoy said thrills and spills!
The live broadcast will appear at on this page.
Or you can view it right here:
And be sure to check out the Great Moonbuggy Race Blog. The most recent post highlights a member of the German contingent and how she’s spent her time in Alabama thus far. And there are other great posts as well, all in the lead-up to race day!
Best of luck to all of the students involved in this year’s Great Moonbuggy Race!
Years ago, I posted that I had just seen the movie Beyond the Stars, which featured the Space & Rocket Center / Space Camp in the film:
So I’m watching this cheesy movie from 1989 called “Beyond the Stars.” It’s a movie where Christian Slater wants to be an astronaut, and throughout the movie they keep talking about NASA and what not, but they keep mentioning Huntsville.
Later in the film, they go to MSFC and The Space & Rocket Center!
Martin Sheen: I was on my way to Huntsville, Alabama so I called your dad and asked if could stop by and ask if I could take you with me. If you want to go.
Christian Slater: Where? NASA? To the Space & Rocket Center?
They’re everywhere too! They show the museum: Casper, the LEM model, Saturn V, etc. They climb around Space Camp simulators (even the UAT! No Space Camp logo was shown though)!
Worth checking out, if only for a “Hey! I’ve been there!” moment!
Well, here’s that clip, if you haven’t seen it already.
If you haven’t seen the movie, you probably don’t need to now!
Space Camp recently began offering “Behind the Scenes” tours for visitors to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
Naturally, I recently went over to the Space Center and took the tour!
My tour left promptly at 2pm and had nearly 20 people in it. Though there seemed to be only three or four separate groups of people, the overall number was still quite impressive.
The first stop was in front of Intrepid Endeavour. Our tour guide, Rachel, talked about the missions kids go on and the different positions and locations available and such.
After an intro to Space Camp missions, we were promptly taken to the top of the UAT to see the diving opportunities available to Advanced Space Academy trainees as well as get a bird’s-eye view of the Mission Center Complex.
Three elevator rides later, we were all on the edge of the MCC, taking a gander at the newly-arrived simulators. It was my first time seeing them and I was elated to hear that they will be in use this Summer!
After the tour of the MCC was complete, we all went–to my great surprise–down to Hab1. Everyone was able to see where the kids stay, and they had a demo room available for viewing.
The last stop on the tour was the AstroTrek building so overviews of the Multi-Axis Trainer, 5DF Chair, and MMU could be given.
Finally, it was back to the Space Camp Info Desk for a surprise: Space Ice Cream! Everyone that went on the tour got a package of ice cream. I was quite famished and it was a very welcomed treat!
Overall, the tour for Space Camp is very straightforward, and extremely thorough. Far more so than I would have guessed. Tour takers received a very good idea of what goes on at Space Camp. At about thirty minutes, the tour isn’t as fast as a glance at a diverse training area, but it is far more detailed.
The only critiques I would make–and they are pretty minor–are as follows:
If you would like to get a tour when visiting the Space Center, simply make your way to the Space Camp Information Desk in front of the MCC, and you can reserve a spot. Standard tour times are 11:00am and 2:00pm daily, but additional times can be added if they prove especially popular on a given day.
