Not too long ago, the question was brought up on the HabForum, what ever happened to that poster?
First, a brief history.
Five years ago, I ran a little contest for visitors to the site.
Benji ended up winning a shiny new copy of SpaceCamp the movie and an STS-107 Memorial Lapel Pin. Yes, Hab1 is a generous place!
At any rate, Benji took it upon himself to collect funding from HabForum members to have a rather large poster printed up.
This is the result after a few early signatures:
Not bad at all!
The poster stayed at Space Camp, safe and sound, passing between a few counselors for safe keeping. Those on this site knew about it and usually knew how to find it. And so, during their week at camp, they would seek it out and sign it.
When I arrived in the Summer of 2004, I was able to take possession of this poster, and it has been with me ever since!
Back to present day, a number of signatures have collected upon it from many, many campers!
Here it is in present day:
Quite a difference!
And so if you’re coming to Camp, be sure to let me know. I’ll get the poster there for you to sign.
And that’s what happened to the poster!
It will no doubt come as a great relief to many to find out that work is currently underway to repair Pathfinder.
Here are some shots taken yesterday that show how they’ve taped off the entirety of Shuttle Park and that they have equipment and manpower on the task.
Odds are if you went to Space Camp in the late 90s or early 00s, you ran into Tony and/or Nathalie. They might have been your team leaders or they might have run you through one of the simulators or, like me, perhaps Nathalie picked you up at the airport!
If you were one of the first to attend 8-day Advanced Academy, your missions were a direct result of many hours of work by these two.
If you’ve attended 8-day lately, you’ve been exposed to much of the great work they did to prepare for the return of the Extended Duration Missions.
Tony and Nathalie left Space Camp in late 2004 never to return again. Until yesterday, that is.
With no fanfare, while visiting the Huntsville area this weekend, Tony and Nathalie made their triumphant return to the Space and Rocket Center, if only for the afternoon.
Upon their arrival, they toured the entire campus. Four years later, it would no doubt seem as if they had never left. Because no matter how much things change, it always feels like Space Camp!
Though most of us have already seen the list of the new class of Space Camp Hall of Fame inductees, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center today officially announced the new Hall of Fame inductees.
The official press release can be viewed here, but here are the names with details and photos to follow:
Friend of SPACE CAMP
• Oscar Holderer – Huntsville, AL
• Marlenn Maicki – Bloomfield, MI
Former Employee
• Lisa DeVries – Cocoa, FL
Former Camper
• Captain Phillip Smith – Seymour Johnson AFB, NC
• Vincent Vazzo – Huntsville, AL
• Specialist Josh “Safety” Whitfield – California
In Greater Detail
Oscar Holderer
Oscar was one of the original German rocket scientists to come over from Penemünde and the original designer of the early Space Camp equipment.
Marlenn Maicki
Marlenn, dean of the Detroit County Day School, has spent many, many years bringing thousands of future astronauts, scientists, and engineers to Space Camp.
Lisa DeVries
Lisa, a United Space Alliance employee at Kennedy Space Center and former Space Camp counselor, works in the Operations Safety department where she mans the Safety Console in the Firing Room in the Launch Control Complex at KSC.
Captain Phillip Smith
Capt. Smith is a pilot in the Air Force, assigned to the 4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Capt. Smith gets to fly F-15E jets at air shows around the world!
Vincent Vazzo
It’s me! You’re on this site now because of me. I’m on this list because of you. Thank you all.
Specialist Josh “Safety” Whitfield
Space Camp knows him as “Safety.” Safety is a 13-time alumnus of Aviation Challenge programs and has served the United States military with great distinction.
It seems the Discovery mission isn’t the only shuttle dealing with debris issues and damage.
Unfortunately, Pathfinder has spent many, many years outside in the hot and humid North Alabama weather.
Just last night, a massive piece of Pathfinder broke loose and fell off! The piece came from the belly of the orbiter under what would be the crew section. The External Tank is currently keeping the section from falling to the ground entirely.
Shuttle Park is currently roped off to visitors while they assess the damage.
As you can tell from the pictures, it’s bad.
The Saturn V has finally been restored. Now it is clearly Pathfinder’s turn.
Space Camp has just launched a much needed makeover to spacecamp.com!
Overall, I think it looks like a nice effort!
If nothing else, it’s certainly an improvement over the previous site as I’m sure we can all agree that it had gotten a bit cluttered and disorganized.
And so well done!
If you happen to come across any problems on the new site (misspellings, bad links, etc.), feel free to post them here on the Habforum and help Space Camp out!
Space Camp has posted video from the Good Morning America spots onto their YouTube page.
Good stuff!
Take a gander, if you weren’t able (read: awake) to watch!
The opening:
The rest:
The Good Morning America spot no doubt provided Space Camp (and Dreamland Barbecue) with great exposure that will hopefully lead to some more Space Camp bookings in the near future!
Space Camp sent out an email to let people know that our Saturn V will be featured on Good Morning America tomorrow morning as one of the “7 Wonders of America.”
From the email:
Good Morning America has named our Saturn V 500D/F as one of the 7 Wonders of America. The official announcement will be broadcast on Monday, May 12, and staff from ABC Television are already here in Huntsville preparing for the show that will broadcast from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. (Eastern and Central times)
ABC will do a series of “live shots” from the Davidson Center during the two-hour program and will discuss our newly-restored Saturn V rocket — the effort to build that rocket and send humans to the moon, our efforts to preserve it, Huntsvilles and Marshall Space Flight Center’s rich heritage in the space program, and SPACE CAMP’s efforts to ignite the interest of America’s next generation of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and explorers.
Be sure to tune in! And if you happen to be one of the newly hired counselors having just arrived for training, be sure to go out and wave to America!
Thanks to Matthew Danner, the HabFiles section has received an update!
A book was produced and given out to international Space Camp licensees. It’s a very nice artifact. It has some rarely seen photos of now defunct Space Camps as well as listings of some that were not meant to be. Quite a find!
Also, pay particular attention to Page 20. Recognize the former First Kid?
Check it out! And enjoy!
