We’ll do it Live

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2009 Apollo Anniversary Gala

Couldn’t justify spending $150 for a ticket to the Apollo Anniversary Gala? No worries! You can still see it live over the web!

From Al Whitaker, the Media Relations Director at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, here’s how it’s going to go:

For those of you sitting in front of your computers Saturday night, surf over to www.spacecamp.com and look for the link for the live streaming webcast of the Year of Apollo Gala from the Space & Rocket Center.

They’re putting us up around 5:30 or 6PM, and the program starts at 7PM. It will only last about 90 minutes or so, but you’ll get to see one of the last of the Mercury astronauts, Scott Carpenter, along with Dick Gordon, Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, Joe Kerwin, Jack Lousma, Walt Cunningham and several others. Dr. George Mueller, who was the head of NASA’s Office of Manned Space Flight during the Apollo program will be there.

We “found” THE original concept drawing of Skylab that Mueller sketched (it has been hanging in a man’s den for about 40 years) and we’ll unveil that, plus the Apollo 12 Mobile Quarantine Facility (which we also literally found in a field behind an abandoned fish hatchery in South Alabama), has been completely restored and will be unveiled. All in all, if there’s even a little bit of a space geek in ya, you’ll love it!

And from home, you’ll have the best seat in the house!

Also, if you’re in the area tomorrow, there will be a book signing at the Space & Rocket Center open to the general public. From Space Camp’s Calender of Events:

All Proceeds from the sale of signed copies of Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story will be donated to the Skylab Restoration

Cost of book will be $80 and signed by authors David Hill, Astronaut Owen Garriot, and Astronaut Joe Kerwin as well as Homer Hickman and astronauts Alan Bean and Jack Lousma

Also featured will be The All-American Boys signed by Astronaut Walter Cunningham and Space signed by Roger Reid of Discovering Alabama

Art and collectibles signed by artist Paul Calle

Tomorrow’s a big day at the Space & Rocket Center! And I really can’t encourage you enough to spend the $80 if you can. The Skylab mock-up has been rotting outside of the Space & Rocket Center for some years now and the all-volunteer effort to restore it has met resistance at times (from the Space Center itself, oddly enough). Proceeds from the signing will no doubt go a long way to getting such a wonderful artifact restored and back to presentable condition.

A School Yard Controversy?

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Rotten Apple with Worm Coming OutHoot’s episode of “Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader” ended and he is no doubt disappointed.

But was he wrong?

Hoot made it all the way to the million dollar question.

That question? “How many common factors do 28 and 32 have?”

Hoot answered “two,” locked in his vote, and lost. He said 2 and 4 were common factors of each, and indeed they are. But he lost because the answer, he was told, should have been three. 1, 2, and 4.

But on the “Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader” message boards, trouble is brewing. A few mathematically inclined viewers in multiple threads have pointed out that one can define common factors not to include the number 1.

A link in one thread to this article states, “Factors are either prime numbers or composite numbers.” Given that the number 1 is neither, maybe Hoot was right!

It would seem a shame not to give the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation $975,000 Hoot fought so hard to win.

Is he Smarter than a 5th Grader?

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Hoot Gibson with Space Camp BarbieFive time shuttle astronaut and friend of Space Camp, Robert “Hoot” Gibson, will be competing for charity on the game show, “Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader,” tonight.

I had the opportunity to speak with Hoot after his return from taping the episode of the show this past July and he said he had some pretty good banter going back and forth with the host, Jeff Foxworthy! And so you should have no doubt that the show is going to be very entertaining even if you’ve never before seen a single episode of the show!

“Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader” airs on the Fox network tonight at 8pm EDT.

Be sure to turn on, tune in, and veg out!

2008 Space Camp Hall of Fame Video

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Space Camp Hall of Fame 2008 LogoThe 2008 Space Camp Hall of Fame webcast is now up online as a streaming video!

The link to the video was just posted to the Alumni Page as follows:

View the July 19, 2008 Hall of Fame induction ceremony … today. This video is approximately 3 hours in length and can take up to 30 seconds for the video to buffer. Click here to watch the archived video.

In order to be able to skip around the video with minimal issues, I recommend using VLC Player over Windows Media Player to watch the stream.

Also, some time ago, photos from the entire Apollo Reunion / Hall of Fame weekend were published online as well.

Hall of Fame Videos Posted to YouTube

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Well. Space Camp has yet to get the Hall of Fame ceremony video onto the internet for those that may have missed it, but that hasn’t stopped someone from posting the wonderful videos that were produced for each Hall of Fame inductee.

Phil Smith HoF Video Still Oscar Holderer HoF Video Still Lisa DeVries HoF Video Still
Captain Phil Smith Oscar Holderer Lisa Devries
Vincent Vazzo HoF Video Still Josh Whitfield HoF Video Still Marlenn Maicki HoF Video Still
Vincent Vazzo Josh Whitfield Marlenn Maicki

Opening Cermonies – ISC 2008

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This past Saturday opened International Space Camp 2008!

Here I present to you the opening procession.

A few things to keep in mind:

1) Not only are international students and teachers invited to International Space Camp, but the United States Teachers of the Year from all states and territories come as well, including the overall teacher of the year.

2) It is customary for the international students and teachers to dress up in native attire (and thus the Canadians come in jeans and a hockey sweater), the teachers from all of the states dress up so as to represent some facet of their state.

2) The teacher of the year this year was Michael Geisen.

3) Michael Geisen led the group. He’s the first one in.

Well done indeed, sir!