Nice place you guys have here.

[Jay Chladek]

I heard about this place from a collectSPACE forum post on Space Camp obviously. I honestly had no idea this place existed. I suppose you can blame it on "A Smile As Big As the Moon" as I watched the Hallmark program, then cracked open a copy of the book I picked up a few years back yet never had a chance to read until now. Well, it took me down memory lane big time. Even though Mike's kids were there in 1989, it was quite a bit of deja vu to see how much it resembled my own camp experience as more things were the same than different back then.

Anyway, my name is Jay Chladek. I attended Space Camp Level II in the spring of 1985. To date, that was the only time I attended. A second trip would have been nice I suppose, but I got a lot out of that first trip. Plus, having Challenger disintegrate a little less than a year later did kind of put my thoughts of space on the backburner for a bit (although I did see the movie in 1986, which was interesting because they used many of the simulators I was in myself).

That was quite a year I must say as Space Camp was really starting to hit critical mass. I was 14 at the time and space was big for me back then. Seeing those two giant domes adjacent to the museum was interesting. I arrived a day early and a camp counsellor from the level 1 group brought me in from the airport. So it was pretty interesting getting to see the place in the middle of the night.

Rather than going through a whole recall of my camp experience, I'll just mention the highlights and some of the more unusual memories:

Wheeled Gemini- This thing occupied one of the domes. It was a Gemini boilerplate with landing gear on it. Counsellors said it was a bolt on gear intended to help wheel the craft around on a carrier deck after recovery. The main gear posts I believe were the locations originally for the Regallo flex wing landing skids.

The Right Stuff- The ole full motion shuttle simulator. Pretty crude by today's standards, but fun to see back then. It was the same one used in the film or at least that one was a very good copy of it.

The Spacelab/Space Station- I must say, whomever did those 1 to 1 mockups back then did a really nice job as it felt like one was on the set of Star Trek when on that two level space station. It even had a bunk bed on one side. You climbed down a ladder in the airlock tunnel to get to the Spacelab. The Spacelab itself matched up pretty well with the photos of the real thing, complete with its bright colors.

Talking Coke Machines- One of those pieces of 1980s technology that I am kind of glad didn't catch on. I remember putting in a dollar into one of these things and it would go through this whole "Hello, I am a talking vending machine" while playing music. It was NOT interactive, it just annoyed people mostly.

Challenger and Discovery Patches- Our class was divided up into two groups, Challenger and Discovery, and we were issued ball caps with those names on them (blue in color, half round with an image of a shuttle orbiting the Earth). I lost my ball cap a long time ago, but I found my Challenger, Level II patch (I'll have to shoot a photo of it for my avatar). My patch is a little dirty (not sure how to clean it as it has a small oil stain on it that is at least two decades old), but otherwise it is in good shape. It would be nice to find a better example of it.

Moo Moo, Moo Moo- Given that I grew up mainly in Nebraska and Texas, I knew what cows were. But when we would board the busses to go to Marshall or the pool location for Tetrahedron construction, it was bizzare seeing the teenage girls on the team look out at the farmers field that used to be across the camp where cows were grazing and go "Hey, look at the cows! Moo moo! Moo moo!" It just cracked me up everytime.

External Tank- At Marshall back then, they had an ET on display in doors and it was divided in half at the intertank so you could see the LOX and LHX tanks seperately. I believe that specific tank ended up at the KSC visitors center. Even though Huntsville didn't have a shuttle and they were a couple years away from getting Pathfinder there, that certainly drove the point home as to how big the shuttle was.

Teachers in Space- I wasn't at camp when the Teacher in Space candidates were but I remember a CNN report about a month after I left where some of the Teacher In Space applicants (I believe those from Alabama at least) had gone through the program and my old camp counsellors were there running them through the machines. Seeing them wearing the same flightsuits and working with the same people was pretty cool to watch.

Thats all I have for now. I went digging through my old stuff and I still have my original flightsuit (it doesn't fit me anymore), complete with the old black and red letter Space Camp patch on it (before they went to the round ones) my old photo ID, my Level 2 wings and my class photo (its been on my wall for years in fact after I had it framed). Maybe one day if I go back for one of the alumni camps I'll try and find an adult sized version of my original flightsuit to wear or I'll at least get a sky blue flightsuit to transfer the patches over. Who knows. I also found a bunch of old polaroid photos I shot of camp back then. They are a little faded, but I think Photoshop can be brought in to work its magic.

Anyway, thats all I've got for now.

[p51]

I heard about this place from a collectSPACE forum post on Space Camp obviously. I honestly had no idea this place existed.

I'm the one who posted that over there. I too recently found out this was here in anticipation of my first visit ever (wanted to go badly when I was a teen but it wasn't going to happen, but I'm going this year at the ripe old age of 42).
Liked your recollections. I've learned so much about Space Camp here, as there really isn't all that much anywhere else I could find that talks about the details of the experience, both past and present (still not much on a post-shuttle-era camp, though).

[Boomerang]

Wow i would love to get ahold of the challenger level 2 patch. Granted that was before my time but i managedto get the Columbia, Discovery and Atlantis patches from various places over the years and have never found the challenger one. Have only seen it in a camp memorabelia display back in 2007.

[Jay Chladek]

It wouldn't surprise me as being something of a rare patch as you have to figure after a certain date in January, 1986, it likely never got used again (and the Space Camp movie caused a bit of an alteration in the camp teams and logos anyway).

I have never seen the Columbia or Atlantis patches. But I figure probably every camp session, they would stagger the teams. So you have Challenger and Discovery one week, Columbia and Atlantis the next... It makes sense anyway.

I just wish I hadn't lost my Challenger hat (I remember wearing it on a trip to visit my brother in Germany in 1988, then it disappeared). That one had a Challenger patch on it as well. I have a feeling Space Camp gave each camper a second patch back then to give campers "trading stock" so if somebody wanted to, they could swap patches with a kid in the other group. But once we split off, we never did many activities with the other team and there were a couple campers who had an "us versus them" mentality.

[Hotdog]

Thanks Jay for sharing your memories of Camp from back in the day. I am a big fan of your model making! I ran across your work on CollectSpace a few months ago. The shuttle Columbia you did is amazing! Welcome to Hab1!

[airkale]

Hey anyone have any pictures of the Space Lab trainer from back in the day they could post?

[Boomerang]

The Spacelab trainer and the Old Right Stuff simulator he spoke of were the old Discovery sim that was still at camp in ite entirety till a year or so ago. Then they got rid of the space lab and RMS and all thats left is the cockpit part of it. Just to make it easier to find these pictures.

[Jay Chladek]

Well, I do happen to have one Polaroid of one wall in the old Spacelab that I had a counsellor shoot of me doing an experiment in it during the first of the two missions we did (I was Payload Specialist Delta for that flight). I need to get it scanned, but I have to reload my scanner's software since the settings got wiped in my last software update.

Thanks for the kind words Hotdog. They are most appreciated. Yes, I am indeed a model maker. I predominantly do space and science fiction subjects, but I kind of dabble in a little of everything (planes, cars etc...).

Here's the Columbia I did (1/144 Airfix model done as STS-107)


I've also got a 1/72 shuttle stack on display at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, NE. It is part of the astronaut Clay Anderson exhibit and represents STS-117, complete with patched hail damage on the ET.



In fact, I just recently started up a youtube channel that specializes primarily in space and SF models (just look for "JMChladek" and you'll find it). Right now I am working on a 1/72 Mercury Redstone using the new Dragon kit. I've also got a kit review up of both the Redstone and the brand new Dragon 1/72 Gemini kit as well.

Here's a link to the Gemini review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZkMxPgrjmc

It is a pity to hear that the Discovery's Spacelab and arm got chucked (the arm was kind of cheesy I admit). The Spacelab interior was done rather well though IMHO. Granted it was built more for looks than functionality, but it looked pretty dang good to my eyes, right down to stencils on the switches (even if most of them were non functional dummies).

[airkale]

Man I didn't hear the arm got chunked... What did they use it for when it actually worked? I remember there was an airlock on top, but it was pretty high.

[Jay Chladek]

Well, when I was there in 1985, four campers were MSes assigned to do the tetrahedron assembly. I believe that three would be on the bottom in the 5DF rigs (at least two of them were in 5DFs, the other might have had simulated "foot restraint" anchors in the payload bay) and the fourth one would be strapped into the MMU at the top. He had no control over the arm from the MMU as it was down to the crane operator below to move him into position. But the guy in the MMU pretty much ran the assembly team (the MMU guy on our second mission went on to get the Right Stuff Award that year, very smart guy and he had a great head on his shoulders).

From what I can remember about the CNN report when the Teacher in Space candidates went though during the summer, they were using a little different setup, but still with the arm and the MMU. This was a few weeks after STS-51D (as I recall, my SpaceCamp class was during 51D) which had the satellite that failed to activate due to what was thought to be a switch problem (which the crew tried to snag with the home made "fly swatters." So the mission had this big blue cylindrical satellite covered in foil hanging from the ceiling and the MS on the arm had to use a pole with a "fly swatter" to trip the satellite's activation switch as it slowly rotated. Nice idea actually, considering it was NOT something they had when I was there (at least not that I ever saw) and was likely created in only a month or two.

[Conan]

The first time I went to the Adult Space Camp, in 1988, the MMU was used for the EVA building the tetrahedron. One MS used it and was in control of its movements with a counselor on an override in case they got carried away. I was an MS and got a chance to try it and pushed it as high as I could get it before they cut me off. I have a lot of photos that I took of the training center floor. I will scan some.

[Boomerang]

I know academy campers were stillusing the MMU/arm to do that same EVA by 1993 when i was at academy and it was under the camper's control. As far as i know they were doing the same EVA till they removed that equipment. It was definately outdated by then. Imagine though that was one way NASA was studying to build the space station truss structure by the astronauts in orbit. Could you imagine assembling the truss like that? Thankfullyu they later developed the intergratted truss structure that was assembled before launch.

[CRS]

For all of the alumni who are re-connecting here, i would also like to recommend you register at http://spacecamp.com/community. This new community does allow you to search for other trainees who might have attended when you did as well. Also mark your calendars for June 14-16 for our 30th birthday celebrations. Details coming very soon!

[Conan]

Here is a link for some photos of the Training Center that I took in 1988.

[Hotdog]

That's the way I remember it! Thanks for sharing!