2008 - Who is going and when?

[pilotgirl21]

Plane ticket to Huntsville last year - $700
Plane ticket to Huntsville this year - $1100

That right there threw out any plans to go down for camp.

Well you made me curious, so I had to look it up too. Last year my plane ticket was $256 and this year I have a ticket qoute of $521...and yes, it's on the same airline and the same exact flight times and numbers that I went on last year.

I guess rising fuel prices cause the ticket prices to more than double? It would be cheaper for me to fly somewhere like Nashville and rent a car and drive there myself than to fly directly to Huntsville!

[airkale]

Plane ticket to Huntsville last year - $700
Plane ticket to Huntsville this year - $1100

That right there threw out any plans to go down for camp.

Well you made me curious, so I had to look it up too. Last year my plane ticket was $256 and this year I have a ticket qoute of $521...and yes, it's on the same airline and the same exact flight times and numbers that I went on last year.

I guess rising fuel prices cause the ticket prices to more than double? It would be cheaper for me to fly somewhere like Nashville and rent a car and drive there myself than to fly directly to Huntsville!

Are you guys checking the discount sites like travelocity, cheaptickets, orbits, etc? I flew completely around the world both east/west and north/south(almost) for around $4800 already this year... Seams that domestic travel couldn't be that expensive.

[gt0163c]

Are you guys checking the discount sites like travelocity, cheaptickets, orbits, etc? I flew completely around the world both east/west and north/south(almost) for around $4800 already this year... Seams that domestic travel couldn't be that expensive.

It all depends on where you're going from to get to Huntsville. Strange as it may seem, it's sometimes cheaper to fly most of the way across the country than it is to fly just a few hundred miles, especially for a fairly small market destination like Huntsville. Also, it can depend upon the dates and times a person needs to fly, when the ticket in purchase, phase of the moon, answer that comes up when the airline computer talks to the Magic 8 ball, etc. Airline ticket prices can be really weird. But, at least at this point, the one constant is that they're going up.

[andystroik]

[Are you guys checking the discount sites like travelocity, cheaptickets, orbits, etc? I flew completely around the world both east/west and north/south(almost) for around $4800 already this year... Seams that domestic travel couldn't be that expensive.[/quote]

I live in wiscon Aprox 800 NI from huntsville AL.
I got tickets in early FEB for $295 grand total round trip for my week long camp.
I checked again today just before this posting and I was quoted $358 grand total round trip.
trip was booked into huntsville AL ( HSV)
I use
http://www.kayak.com

Kayak is an a travel agent like Orbutz Travelocity etc.

it is a google type site for travel. I t allows you to input you travel cites cities and dates. Then it scans for all fares that are in operate between those cities.

It searches all the common Travel as well as the airlinr web site themslves.
It displaus all options. when you find the one you like click it and you are sent to the site that has that fare available.

Kayak.com is free to use check it out.

[monkeynautt]

I'm from Canada so that makes it more expensive to begin with. That, and the fact that there are only 2 - 3 airlines that fly out of my local airport and into Huntsville so I'm really limited.

There was one time I went to camp that there was only one airline that flew into Huntsville from my local airport. For 2/5 of my youth trips my parents actually drove me to Calgary b/c it was cheaper to drive the 5 hours return (twice) and more flight options.

[Mercergl]

I didn't know that there are no Adult programs during the summer. Oh, well, I guess they would be in the normal version. I have gone on this date once and the week before once and there are a fair amount of people there, though there may not be as many teams as there are later in the summer. I just go pretty early because i hate waiting for camp!

[JasonG]

My wife and I are headed for Adult ASA the week of Aug 31 - Sep 5. We went last year around this same time frame to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary. Yes, we met at Space Camp!

[SpaceCanada]

Woo, congrats!

And have a blast at Adult ASA. I did the adult 8-day back in 2004 and it was incredible! We expect a full report when you return.

[JasonG]

Woo, congrats!

And have a blast at Adult ASA. I did the adult 8-day back in 2004 and it was incredible! We expect a full report when you return.

Thanks and we will most definitely submit a full report! (That is once we get our feet back on the ground!)

Last year was the first year I had seen the program since 1997. I was there in the beginning of ASA after the conversion from SA LEVEL II and the changes are wonderful! We cannot wait to see what has changed over the last year.

[ousax]

Hello everyone! I was just directed to this forum from one of my Kennedy 36-96 Team members. I attended Adult space camp the first week of September 1996 and had a wonderful time.

I will be going back a year from now with my nephew for Adult/Child Camp.

[pilotgirl21]

Hello everyone! I was just directed to this forum from one of my Kennedy 36-96 Team members. I attended Adult space camp the first week of September 1996 and had a wonderful time.

I will be going back a year from now with my nephew for Adult/Child Camp.

Welcome to the hab! There have been a ton of changes since 1996, so when you return next year, the museum and grounds will look very different. I had gone to camp in 1998 and returned last summer and was surprised at how many changes there were. I took a trip down to Huntsville this past February to see the new Davidson Center and I'm sure that there has been some more changes done to the center since then even. It is a great experience to return to camp after so many years!

[Wildman914]

I am going to Adult Advanced Space Academy August 17-22nd
I been in 1999 but just to regular ASA. I cant wait to see whats changed besides the training floor. I just went to visit for a day and the training floor looked awesome with all the modules and new set up.
cant wait

[SpaceCanada]

Wow, so many new people - welcome everyone!

Space Camp has changed so much since the late 90s. Even between 1998 and 1999 things changed a lot, then from 1999 to 2004 - whoa! When I visited for a day last summer things had changed a bunch again. I hardly recognised the place.

But... some things are the same - Space Shot is still tossing kids to the skies, the LEM is still in the middle of Rocket Park, the 'fuge is still spinning over at AC (and the one in Rocket Park), the mess hall is still the mess hall (nothing big changed there), Enterprise is the best sim ever, the Habs are still the coolest place to sleep (literally), and you can still play the orbiter landing sim in the museum. But... pretty much everything else has changed.

It still remains that Space Camp is the awesomest place on Earth.

[SpaceCanada]

Mercergl - How was your week at camp? Full report!

[Mercergl]

OK, Here's my report of camp (ASA 8-day week 39) (sorry it couldn't be sooner but I was out of town with no internet this last week):

So for the first two or three days there was a cold spell in Huntsville, which could be considered by some people to be normal weather. We had an awesome team, two of whom I knew from last year. We were Goddard team (if you were there at that time, even if you weren't on our team you will probably remember:
Leader: "What team is this!?"
All: "Goddard!"
Leader: "What!?"
All: "GODDARD!"
Followed by the chorus of We Are The Champions.

For anybody not there at the time, the above "incident" isn't worth trying to explain. We were left laughing so hard some of us had difficulty breathing.

We had nicknames ("Gordo" for the kid who fell asleep in every breifing [After Gordo Cooper, who fell asleep on the launch pad]) and our share of anomalies during training ("The Freon loop!!!!!")

We had a rocket building competition, which had... interesting... results.
The objective: build a rocket from scratch capable of carrying an egg and landing safely. my team started fairly simply: nose cone with two cups atop a cardboadt tube and a D engine. Unfortunatel the only way to carry the egg with the available supplies was to arrange the cups in more or less the shape of a warhead from an RPG. We're pretty sure the folks over at Redstone wouldn't have approved. So then we got to thinking: as long as we're recreating a Russian anti-tank weapon, why not make it a litte more authentic? So we coated the whole thing in duct tape and filled the cups with cotton balls to cushion the egg:http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... 010030.jpg My face is not clearly visible in this picture.
Now, with our rocket greyed out and our payload secure, and still with a fifth of our credits still available (this was an exercise in budgeting AND engineering) we decided, why not slap on an extra stage? We did, so now we had two D engines, with a ton of duct tape that, for all we knew, could flash-ignite on the launchpad. With a parachute and a ton of hot glue the rocket was coming together. Unfortunately, we had succeded in going for broke. We had only three popsicle sticks to stabilize the second stage. So we duct taped that together and readied it for launch. At this point the other groups were about halfway through and we still had an hour. So I made a dust cover out of masking tape. http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... ure227.jpg (here you can see the finished rocket with pemporary seals and caution&warning screen attached.)

At launch the rocket did its best sidewinder missile impression and the egg ended up scrambled. But it was definetly the best launch of the day!

I have some pictures from inside the dunker and lifter at AC, as well as the UAT but I haven't gotten them developed yet. When I do I'll put them up. Here are some topside, pre-crash pics:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY001.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY004.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY003.jpg

We went to Area 51 and climbed some stuff:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day040.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day011.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day050.jpg

We dove in the UAT:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day006.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day012.jpg

Of course we rode Space Shot:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY009.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... DAY012.jpg

So then came the EDM. We had the regular heart attack at launch, but ater SRB sep, so in the confusion we did not know if we were supposed to stay seated still. Flight Director said to stand. Flight Director didn't think that one through much. Everyone on the flight deck was incapacitated, but eventually the situation was happily resolved and the Mission Specialists went out for an EVA:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day099.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day103.jpg

*That's me in the harness, attempting to not cause a hypergolic explosion during refueling of the satellite.

We had fun with chemicals and medical anomalies in the ISS:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day192.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day146.jpg

Including psychotic "episode": http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day225.jpg

And of course MOCR had their share of problems:

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day087.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day077.jpg

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... day074.jpg

And finally, things went crazy back aboard Enterprise when the space craziness returned:
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... 010059.jpg (a close approximation of what happened)

All in all, an awesome week!

[SpaceCanada]

Wow, looks like a really eventful week! Glad you had a great time. I love the ridiculous rocket - ha! Thanks for the update and photos!

[Mercergl]

No problem! it was a great week!

[commanderkid]

hi everyone. Looks like the reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated. My plan is to return in 2012 for the 30th anniversary. Mainly due to cost of travel and of the camp. Hope everyone is doing well and congrats to Vincent for making the hall of fame!