Space Camp

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Nicholas and I attended Space Camp in Huntsville Alabama from March 24 to March 27th 2005.  We had a very busy weekend which consisted of class room activities, museum learning, physical endurance tests, rocket assembly and even piloting a simulated Space Shuttle mission.  All in all we had a fun but tiring Easter weekend..

Nicholas waits at the "C" Terminal at Metro Airport

We arrive at Huntsville and see a Saturn 5 rocket!

Nicholas and I arrived early so we decided to see the Huntsville Visitors Center

We learn a lot about Huntsville's history

We drive to the top of one of mountains to see the valley below

We enjoyed the scenery

Quite a beautiful view

We checked into the "habitat" at Space Camp

The director of the program tells the kids and the parents what to expect

The kids line up

The outside view of the habitat

The "Pathfinder" full scale shuttle

Our guide, Heather, gets the kids lined up

Team Atlas

Nicholas asks a question about the fuel tank

He poses next to one of the shuttle's boosters

The shuttle simulator, which we later get to pilot

We spent several hours that first day in briefings

We learned about the shuttle's history and its components

We spent time in the museum.  Here, we see Robert Goddard's rocket

Werner Von Braun's office

We learned about the Mercury program

Nicholas asks about the Gemini Capsule

We see the landing module

Apollo 16's splashdown module

Later, we take time to learn about the 1/6th gravity simulator, which helped the astronauts learn to walk on the moon

Nicholas is strapped in and ready to go

He gets ready to leap

Away he goes!

He is able to easily leap into the air

Now it's Dad's turn!

This looks like fun!

I fly in the air

Now it's Nicholas' turn for the MMU trainer

He can simulate the navigation of a space walk

Look, no hands!

He spins the MMU

Dad tries it!

Later that first night, we built rockets.

After breakfast on Saturday, we trained on the gyro chair

This chair simulates a spinning craft and allowed the astronauts to train in a very strong g-force environment

Nicholas loved it

He was nervous at first, but enjoyed it

Dad's turn!

It wasn't so bad, and there was no nausea!

Later on day two, we visited the outdoor rocket museum

We were able to see real scale models of the Atlas, Redstone and Saturn rockets

Here are the three stages of the Saturn 5

Nicholas is under the Saturn 1

We're behind the horizontal Saturn 5

It's quite big

Here's another Saturn 5

Later on day 2, we ran a rehearsal for a shuttle mission.  On this mission, Nicholas is CAPCOM and I'm Propulsion

We're ready for a launch

Nicholas watches the controls carefully

We had a successful run through.  Later, we'll do  a full mission

The crew evaluates the shuttle's cockpit

We took our model rockets from the night before and launched them!

Nicholas watches as the engine is installed

Nicholas presses the button to launch his rocket

3-2-1 ignition! 

Away his rocket goes!

He managed to build a good rocket which returned safely to earth

Dad launches his

Nicholas retrieves the rocket

Later on day two, we did mountain climbing training

After the physical training, we returned to the museum.  Here, Nicholas visits a mock up of the MIR space station

The kids had a project of their own.  They built a jointly designed space station.

Nicholas asks questions about living in space

Later that night, Nicholas became the commander of the space shuttle simulation

his dad was the pilot

We're ready to go!

Nicholas and his dad check with the crew to make sure the shuttle is ready to launch

on the third day, we played a "Jeopardy" like game on space trivia

Nicholas bets it all

The kids from Team Atlas!

We had a great time!

Our plane awaits us to take us home

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