Space Camp Part 1
Happy Monday, Friends!
I had a hard time getting going this morning, but today’s post definitely cheered me up because I’m recapping
SPACE CAMP!
Ha, I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out. I have always had a deep love for the space program, and I met two of the original Mercury 7 astronauts – Alan Shepherd and John Glenn. I went to space camp four times in my school years, and I just loved every second of it. I event majored in aerospace engineering for one whole day in college!
I have not been to NASA since 1999, so I begged Judson to let me go this summer – and my brother Thomas also decided to join us. Here’s a look at my silly little weekend of fun!
Here we are in our hotel room…
I made Thomas trade rooms with me so I could have the view of Rocket Park!
The bubble shaped building is the Habitat Bay where real campers (aka not adults reliving their childhood, ahem!)
get to stay on campus.
Here we are being super cute – just a few hours before I was hugging the toilet with massive food poisoning! 
The view from our hotel room at dark…
Here we are about to go in…eek!
These are photos from Dr. Wherner Von Braun’s (the Father of Modern Rocketry) office that was reset inside the Space and Rocket center.
Those monkeynauts were so cute, and some are buried outside the center.
We each took turns climbing the rock wall.
Judson took a turn too, but he ended up slicing his hand and having to drop down.
He was more into the simulators and electronics anyway!
The monkey’s module…
We all took a ride on this simulator together…
And this is where Thomas ended up getting injured! Amateurs!
#gforces #imapro
One of the original space suits…
After the tour of the museum and indoor simulators, we headed outside to Rocket Park. You are looking at the Pathfinder shuttle.
(The building in the background also holds a special piece of my space camp kid heart. That’s where we did a lot of training including the 5 Degrees of Freedom and the Manned Maneuvering Unit.)
Do you think this is a real shuttle?
The answer is MOSTLY. The orange external tank and two white solid rocket boosters are REAL rockets, and the shuttle is an exact representation of the real STS shuttles.
This beauty is an exact prototype of a Saturn V rocket…
Each of these rockets were tested for the future of space flight…
Looking up, these are the engines of a Saturn I.
My boys and me!
Crazy pants inside a Mercury command module!
This is a life-size representation of a lunar module landing on the moon…
The G-Force acellerator is a Centrifuge simulator that takes you up to 4Gs. Jud rode it once…
This is the prototype of the rocket going to Mars! You can see similarities between the shuttle and the old Apollo Saturn Vs.
These are the actual training suits of the Apollo 1 astronauts that died.
Apollo was my favorite program of all of NASA’s missions. This is me in an actual Apollo command service module simulator.
A lunar rover…
A lunar excursion module…
This is the real Apollo 16 CM that flew in space in 1972!
A genuine moon rock brought back on Apollo 12…
The Gemini mission training simulator…
And the Mercury training sim…
This simulator is called the Space Shot. It simulates a launch by blasting you off at 4Gs up to 200 feet. Jud did ride it once. (Noticing a pattern?!) Thomas and I rode it several times.
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No fear! See all those fraidy cats holding on for dear life? That was probably my 20 somethingth launch over the years. I knew what to expect.
I always wanted to know how I’d look in an astronaut suit. I look good, don’t I?!
That’s the grave of Miss Baker, one of the monkeynauts. Whoever put those bananas by her gravestone was hilarious!
I guess that’s enough Space Camp love for one day! Come back tomorrow for recap 2 including Aviation Challenge and Marshall Space Flight Center!
