I started off in Atlanta and drove to Chattanooga for other reasons before leaving for Huntsville. After looking at other museums in the area, I found myself at the Marshall Space Center visitor center gift shop an hour before it closed. I was amazing to see the 100% size mockup of a Saturn V rocket in the distance as I came over the rise on highway 525. I bought just a few items (the first of many) and decided to chill on that until camp started. I stayed in the Marriott next door as there's really nothing else around the area of Space Camp. Looking across the fence at The HAB, I could hardly wait until the next day. I broke out my tripod and got a night photo of the Saturn Vs at the facility.
DAY ONE
The following morning, I checked out and met up with Steve, who I'd met only here on the Hab forum once I realized we were already signed up for the same rotation. We couldn't check in at first, so we walked around and I took plenty of photos. As it was by then considered off season (and a weekday morning), there were very few people there. In fact, Steve and I had the entire building with the real Saturn V rocket to ourselves for over 45 minutes! We both got great shots with nobody else to deal with.
We also looked around and marveled at the full-size shuttle mockup, "Pathfinder" which is hard to see from the parking lot but dominates the view from inside the fence.
Soon, we asked again and we told to go check in for Space Camp. Once we did, we were greeted very warmly. They handed us our name badges we had to wear, a nice blue camp t-shirt (which we were strongly encouraged to change into right away), bed linens and a room assignment. Normally set aside for up to seven campers, we adults all shared the rooms with only one other person. Steve and I got the same room which worked out well. We went into a room and were lectured on what to expect, a general overall view of what we'd be doing and the terms we would need to know. We then got a tour of the facility and soon immediately jumped into training for the first of two primary missions, which would be single-orbit shuttle launches augmented by the International Space Station (ISS). I was in the Mission Control that mission and pretty clueless at first. It initially felt like the "throw you into the deep end and hope you swim" method, but soon we found out it's the only way to get you up to speed.
This was Mission Control, note that the orbiter is sitting on the runway with no landing gear extended!
"Mission Control" represents near the end of Day One. I am far left, and Steve is the second to the right:
Right outside that room, there was a display of costumes and propps from the recent TV movie, "A smile as big as the moon," which was now overshadowed by a major-budget film on Space Camp called, "Space Warriors," which I assume will be in theaters next year.
We also had a "get to know you" session where we all explained how we got there. Our team trainer was Lydia, a 20-something gal from California who was going to be a teacher someday. She called us all, "her kids," even though many of us were old enough to be her parents (and two, her grandfather). Right away, it looked like everyone was looking to get along with everyone. It was a great group of people who got along right from the start. Lydia said she always told groups they were her favorite when asked.
There were a few people who had been given the experience by friends or family and more than a few birthdays during the timeframe. That would factor in later. We were given model rockets to assemble and paint for a later launch. I'd built oodles of rockets in high school, so I think I broke a speed record getting mine done. The only "WTF" moment came when we were told to go outside and paint them.... in the dark! That's right, not a single light could be found. I'd never painted anything like that before and oddly it didn't turn out too bad.
We turned in quite drained, especially since it was amazingly hot outside. Having been away from the south since 1998, I was no longer used to that climate and suffered accordingly. Thankfully, it was the hottest day we had.
DAY TWO
We woke very early to hit the ground running. We were scheduled for flight training, a class on space history, another practice mission (again, a one-orbit trip), the rocket launches and our primary mission, which would be over two hours. I was told I would be in the ISS running experiments the second ("Bravo") mission. That was fine, as I was told we each would have one mission in each of the environments so I knew I'd get to use the orbiter eventually.
Getting breakfast down quickly, we headed over to the Aviation Challenge section to do flight training in F-18 fighter simulators and a centrifuge. We all pulled about 3 G's in a real centrifuge and tired taking off and landing in F-18s as well as dog fighting each other. I think I scared a couple of people when I pulled out my real nomex gloves and then proceeded to shoot down at least three of my team mates.
On the way back, we talked about the mission patch we were told to create by the end of the day. Someone suggested a birthday cake theme due to all the birthday people we had. Someone else suggested 12 candles to represent each of us. I then offered to draw the patch, suggesting mounting the birthday cake atop a external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, replacing the orbiter while into space. Everyone seemed to like the idea. I quickly sketched out a crude version of the design, which was now firmly in my mind.
We ran the second ("Bravo") mission, which would call for another launch and return from one orbit. I sat it out running experiments in the ISS. It was fun and interesting, but sort of boring in comparison to mission control and certainly being on the orbiter.
After lunch, we went to the building that housed the multi-axis trainer (that thing that has the concentric spinning rings), we all lined up to get onto the simulator for 1/6 scale gravity like on the Moon. I'd always wanted to do this and quickly got the hang of it.
Then, the main mission was going to be run. The "Charlie" mission was over 2 hours and involved a full mission. They announced the positions and I was given the job of being the pilot of the orbiter! This was EXACTLY what I'd hoped to do when I got there, a real dream come true.
There were a lot of checklists to run, so many switches to throw and computer codes to input. Just getting the Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) on and off seemed to take forever. My commander was Maria, one of three friends who came to Space Camp. She said she was shaky at flying and was no liar when we did two practice approaches. We went through trees onto the runway each time. I reminded her that although the orbiter was seriously damaged each time, knowing the size of the trees at Kennedy, they were certainly survivable landings.
I can't honestly say I recall much other than being glued to the checklist. There's a lot to do, but this was exactly where I wanted to be. Having seen other missions land without putting the gear down, I was sure that wouldn't happen to us. We went up, got into orbit, opened the payload bay doors and started an EVA with the mission specialists behind us on our deck. They actually put space suits on and really worked on a mockup satellite in the cargo bay. But wouldn't have traded that for the seat in the cockpit.
Soon, it was time to re-enter the atmosphere. Looking around for minute, it was amazing to see very well-simulated windows, even the view of the payload bay to the back! Things got interesting on the approach to Kennedy Space Center (the previous two missions were at the forgiving runway at the dry lake beds of Edwards AFB), we started drifting badly to one side, then the other. I tried to coach Maria and where to look and how to ease it in. I must admit I didn't think we were going to get it on the runway at one point but she really stuck with it. I really got the feeling like everything depended on us. I later realized it was a real nail-biter in mission control and down in the lower decks of the orbiter. I made sure to have the landing gear and drogue chute armed and ready. There would be no belly-landings on my watch, thank you very much! At one point it looked like we'd overshoot the runway and I talked Maria down to what i thought was touchdown about 1/3 down the runway. Then I realized we'd touched down and bounced back into the the air. I was saying, "Nose down," over and over again. We cut across the axis of the runway but did manage to get it line up down the strip. I think I heard people cheering downstaris but maybe that was my imagination. I immediatetly popped the chute and watched the runway on the screens for when we'd stopped rolling. I know it was the commander's call to make but it wasn't on the checklist and I doubted Maria would know to say the last words made from the orbiter Enterprise after end of mission:
"CAPCOM, Enterprise. Wheels stop."
Maria and I high-fived one another at the conclusion of the mission, knowing we'd averted disaster on the runway at Kennedy.
I can't recall ever feeling that happy in my life from doing a spcific thing. I'd wanted to do exactly this for 30 years. That moment made it worth a hundred times the money and effort to get there to say that I helped get a space shuttle through it's mission. By God, I was THERE.
After the mission, we were reminded that the mission patch for our team hadn't been completed yet. I told Lydia not to worry that I'd have it done in a few minutes. I know she didn't believe me at the time. I hammered this patch out in about 15 minutes or so, to the stunned silence of the rest of the team. Lydia said she'd never seen anything like that before.
I was quite proud of the effort and people immediately wanted patches made form this once I admitted I knew someone who could make them from the design.
Getting close to the end of camp, many of us went to the hotel bar at the nearby Marriott where the usual alcohol-induced wackiness ensued. I didn't hit the bunk until well past midnight. Six AM came awfully early the next morning.
DAY THREE
The day started by doing a trivia game against the other team. Done Jeopardy-style, we had no idea what our score was until graduation.
Cleaning up and packing our stuff up, a few people were allowed to try their hands at hitting the bin with the linens from the second floor of the HAB, something the kids aren't allowed to do.
We then went to a IMAX movie and afterward, to graduation.
Graduation was fine yet very sad. We were really getting our stride by the time it was all over.
We won the trivia contest and my mission patch design beat the other team's design (I saw a lot of stunned looks on the faces of people on the other team when they saw what we'd put together) and will be on the space camp website eventually! It was really cool that as they called out our names, they used the positions we had on the third mission. I must admit I really liked the sound of, "Lee Bishop, pilot"!
Due to the heat, only three of us had flight suits and none of us wore them until graduation. I really wish it'd been cooler so we could have worn them a lot more...
Those who had to catch flights left. We all probably knew the same thing, that a unique group of people had experienced something that would never be repeated again.
Now that camp was over, several of us (including Lydia, so I assume we really were her favorite after all) took the new tour of Redstone Arsenal. We toured the ISS control room on the NASA tour of Redstone Arsenal, which was amazing. We saw that and many of the test equipment used to certify rockets since the 1950s.
Soon after the final photo, we returned to the visitor center, made one more pass through the gift shop, said goodbyes to those still there, and Space Camp became a memory.
I'll never forget my time with Team Columbia, week 50, 2012 at Space Camp!
Glad you had fun!
