11 years ago today the adventure began.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Jul 12, 2002 2:15 pm

11 years ago today my father my brother and i packed upo and got into the car and headed for Huntsville Alabama. It was my first time going to space camp i was 11 years old and had just finished the 5th grade. This was the first and only year we drove to camp. My dad vowed after driving for 2 days with my younger brother and i in the back seat that he would never take a long drive with us again and to this day he has kept his word. Althought i didnt like the drive itself it had its perks. We stopped off in NC at Lake Lure in the mountains. Atleast part of Dirty Dancing was actually filmed there. We stayed with some family at a cabin on the lake. we spent the afternoon and night their swimming and having fun. For all the PDA nuts on the forum 11 years ago tonight i also got my first real kiss from a verry atracktive female friend of my cousin who was there at the lake with us. Well thats was the start of the adventure maybe ill do a series of posts in the next week as much as i can remember anyway from space camp 11 years ago day by day.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sat Jul 13, 2002 6:26 pm

Well noone seemed to care about the first post under this topic hopefully the space camp stuff might get some response. Well day 2 of the trip started bad when i found out the girl who id gotten my first kiss from had a boyfriend. Well by noon that day we left Lake Lure headed for Huntsville. We could have gone all the way that day but instead we stopped off in TN about 90 minutes from Huntsville and stayed the night in a hotel. Well tommorow's post will start the first day of space camp. Its amazing how much i remember after 11 years.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 12:20 pm

Well after driving for 2 days and 90 minutes that morning we finnaly arrived in Huntsville. We headed directly to the Space and Rocket center. I remember seeing the Saturn 1 sticking up above the trees as we got close. As we pulled up i remember seeing pathfinder for the first time. Upon arival i had to go to hab 1 to check in and get my room assignment. I dont remember exactly what room it was but it was in hab 2 with all the other space campers. My dad, brother and i went over their found the room and an empty bed . I made the bed put y stuff in a locker and headed up to the space camp team room. In those days the team room in hab 2 was a big open room with lots of tables, no carpeting and a big screen tv and apollo space suit up in the front. I met the first member of my team their although for the life of me i cant remember his name. My dad and brother said goodbye and left. I was on the Teledyne Brown team. The other guy and i talked for a while till they took everyone to the cafeteria for lunch. When we got back all but one member of our team was their. He wouldnt come till later that night sincve he was coming from korea. We had out orientation and watched a welcome video after lunch. We also met our night counselor Kenn. The rest of the afternoon was basicly a tour of the rocket park and aome sim im not sure what its called. Two people sat at opposite ends of a large spinning arm. The counselor got it rotating and then we had to do stuff like throw a ball to the other person. It was just demonstrating some basic physics. We also had our first lecture on space history and took a quiz on our space history knowledge to help determine who would be what on the mission. I put down pilot, ms, and flight director as my 3 top choices of jobs. Really that was about al for the first day look for more to come in the next few days.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 5:33 pm

Oh i forgot one thing on my first day. This was something unique ti my first year at space camp. That night for dinner we ate at the picnic tables on the side of the museum between the rocket park and the pathfinder. We had hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. Also they had some music playing some intresting variations on real songs turned into space songs. We never got to do that again except the first year.

orion8 · Post by **orion8** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 5:50 pm

11 Years ago? Man you're old. lol Just playin with ya man. I think its pretty cool you can remember it that well. but space camp is not easy to forget, is it?

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 5:56 pm

I cant believe how much i remember too. I'm sure a few things might get written about on the wrong day but for the most part they will be pretty close.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Jul 15, 2002 2:12 pm

Well 11 years ago today was the first full day of space camp. When we woke up in the morning we were told to wear out team t-shirts since we had the picture taken that morning. We went to breakfast then went over to the lunar landscape for the team picture. Its not one of the better pictures of the 4 years i went. The picture had atleast 4 teams in it and the people look so small its hard to recognise your team from another. The first simulator we had was alo that day. We had the 5 DF that morning. We aloso found out our mission positions and did a quick lookover of the script before we had our mission practice. During the day we also had a couple of lectures though on what i cant remember. I believe we also had some time in the rocket park. Oh and of course we started working on our model rockets and our space station. I believe we also did the SSMT but i could be wrong.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 10:28 am

Well looks like we're up to day 3 now. Day 3 we did another script read through for our mission which would take place the following day. We also did the MMU 1G simulator and the maneuvering pod. The maneuvering pod is no longer their i think they removed them when space sot was installed. Vincent you might remember it i know Kemara does. You got into a big metal ball with a window careful not to touch the controls othertwise you might inadvertantly end up upside down. They closed a big glass tube with air blowing up into it. when the tube was closed the pod shot up to the top giving you about the same sensation as space shot just on a smaller scale. When they opened the tube it would come down again. They would do this several times. I remember that day we also got our space suit lecture and got to go see the room that was also seen in the space camp movie. The room had space suits from Mercury to the present day. It also had the backup suits for the Apollo 1 crew on display. This is the room where max goes in the movie and fixes jinx its also where jinx heres him say he wishes he was in space. Last time i was atthe space and rocket center this room had been turned into a display on army rocketry. Its upstairs in the museum. After the suit room we went back to the training center and got to put on the space camp space suits that i'm sure evetryone has seen sitting around the training center floor ussualy around Endeavour and Columbia. Oh the first 3 nights we were their we also saw space domw theaters but only 3 the space and rocket center didnt have any others at the time. We saw Hail Columbia the first night, The Dream is alive the second night, and Blue Planet the third night. These are still 3 of my favorite imax movies after all these years. At some point in the week i believe it was monday and i had forgotten we also rode something else thats no longer in the rocket park. I forget what they called it i think it was the space walker or somethinbg like that. You sat in a seat with one other person on the end of a long arm. The seat looked like the MMU. The arm would go up and around and then youd bounce back up on the other side come back down and bounce off the ground their and back around to the back again you would keep doing this for several minutes. I dont really know what the point was it was kind of a cheesy ride. Tommorow the shuttle mission and water activities.

Post by **Vincent** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 11:04 am

Yes, I remember it...unfortunately though, I never got to ride it...

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 11:15 am

If you ever rode space shot you get the same experiance except on a biger scale. And the space shot is much more exciting. The maneuvering pod was gun though i was sorry to see it go. I got to ride it twice once at space camp and once at space academy level 1.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 2:30 pm

Well looks like i'm up to the half way point of the week. Wednesday was the big day that year. Knowing our mission was that day those of us who had flight suits wore them all day. That morning we had the 1/6th chair and finished up our rockets and space station model. We also had to do a stupid interview for our camp video. I dont really remember doing alot that day but i believe we also did a space bowl. That year the whole camp was doing it at once. Following lunch we went straight to Columbia for our mission. I was pilot with the best friend i had at camp as commander. At camp the mission is only an hour long and the simulator isnt verry complex. Their are a couple of anomolies given to the team in each mission but nothing like what you have at ASA or even academy. They gave us to problems during the mission i actually still remamber them. The first one was a leaking thruster and the second one was bad weather at Kennedy space center. At camp the anomoly shows up oin the computer screen and your presented with several choiuces and you have to pick the right one. Nothing fancy but remember we were elementary school kids. At spcae camp they really arent trying to kill your team during the mission or anything but you will lose points for wrong decisions as well as for not staying on time. Following the mission we had our debriefing. After that we went to the pool for water activities which took up most of the afternoon. In those days we didnt go over to the AC Lake we went to the University of Huntsville to use their pool. At the pool they had us swim through several hula hoops underwater. Then we had some free time before going over to the diving board where we had to jump off swim to a raft get in and padel over to a basket similar to what they used in the early space program for recovery and climb into it. All of this was fiilmed for our video as well. After that we had to assemble a cube in the water. After the pool activities i really dont remember what happened the rest of the day. Tommorow The Mat.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:58 am

Well here we are the last full dasy of camp and the day before graduation. For me this would be the longest day of the week. The day started off ok we launched our model rockets that morning. Everyones rocket went off fine and most recovered atleast part of their rockets. They actually gave everyone a crcket to put in the payload section of the rocket. My cricket actually survived suprisingly but i doubt he was ever the same again after a ride like that. To be honest i really dont remember much else about that morning. Then for lunch we had what i call the chili dogs of death. In those days you really didnt get alot of choices at meals so it was either chili dogs or no main course. Something told me i should have eaten some of the jello with lunch that day but ill get back to that in a minute. After lunch our counselor took some pictures of us around the training center. Later she sent us copies of them. Other than my team photo these are the only pictures i have from that year. Then we went to the multi axis trainer. I was the third person to ride it on the team. The ride itself was fine but after i got off i started feeling sick. I never though up but i felt like it many times that day. The reason i said somnething about the jello is most of the people who ate it didnt feel any bad effects even if they ate the chili dogs. That afternoon we went to Marshall space flight center where we gpot the regular bus tour including seeing a mockup of what at the time was called space station freedom i also got my first look at the AC area which at the time was still fairtly new. After getting back i went to sickbay to lay down and spent most of what was left of the day their. The only thing my team did that i missed was the centrifuge but the way i was feeling i wouldnt have rode it anyway. My counselor came and got me for dinner and i did eat some but not much. After dinner we had to present ouyr space staion models we had been working on all week. I still had a headache but i was doing alot better by that point. It was outr last night at camp but unllike most years i guess it really didnt hit us till the next day. Everyone on the team had a few friends but the team as a whole wasnt super close like my teams were in later years. Tommorow graduation and the beginning of the trip home.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 2:21 pm

Well We're up to the last day of camp. It goit a rough start. They woke us up at 5:30 that morning to get ready to leave. I still wasnt feeling too good so i packed up my gear stripped my bed and went to sick bay. After breakfast my day counselor came to get me for graduation.We went and had one last team meeting to make sure the counselor got everyones name right and to fill out questionaires. Our Graduation was on the first floor of hab 1. Alan Bean even spoke at our graduation. While we were waiting for our team to graduate they had us sitting up along the walls of the second floor until our team was called. We graduated but our team didnt get any awards.Afterwards pur team said its goodbyes. my dad and brother came back to pick me up and we were given a free pass to see the museum. Ofcourse i was all excited being able to show them what we'd done during the week but my dad and brother didnt really care and we didnt stay for long. Then we were back on the road again. We spent the whole day driving before stopping in Cherokee NC to camp for the night. We had planned to drive the rest of the way the next day but we found out the camp was going to take a group white water rafting 2 days later so we decided to stay their a few extra days. Tommorow the next day.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 11:32 pm

Well as for the next day i cant say a whole lot. It was spent around the camp ground and also in town for a while. My brother and i rented a couple of bikes and explored the area most of the day other than that it was kind of boring especialy compared to the week i had just gone through and was missing already. Tommorow the rafting trip.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sun Jul 21, 2002 4:45 pm

Well the following day we took a bus from the camp sight to go rafting. I was still wearing my space camp t-shirt because i still missed camp. We went white water rafting for most of the day. Other than getting wacked in the mouth with the handle of my paddle it was alot of fun. But i think our river guide was also a little senile.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Jul 22, 2002 12:54 pm

Well here it is the anniversary of the final day of my first trip to space camp. We had been camping in the mountains on NC and i live on the east coast of VA so we still had a long drive ahead to get home. (Despite what many people seem to beieve neither VA or NC are small states). We got up early that morning just after sunrise and broke camp. After paying for the site we hit the road for the long drive. We stopped for breakfast a couple of hours later. And ;ater for lunch along the way. The drive home was even worse than the drive down because i knew the trip was almost at an end and soon it would be back to my regular life and routine. After a long day in the car we finnaly got home. But that trip changed alot of things. The story didnt really end their. All i could talk about with friends and family was my trip to space camp. I redecorated my room within a few weeks. I had previously had alot of army and other military posters and pictures on my wall. when i got home i hung all the space mission patches i'd bought up on my wall. Since i didnt have resources at the time to get alot of space pictures for my wall i started tracing stuff out of my space camp log book and hanging it up. I also found an old picture i'd probab;y had for years but had forgotten about. It was a picture taken of copernicus crater from lunar orbiter 2 back in the 60's. And i found an old framed certificate from the international star registry where my dad had gotten a star named after me back in 1983. Yeah it was really just a money making scheme that is still around but it was cool. 2 years later i got a job as a tour guide at the new space museum in out town and then shortly their after rteturned to space camp to attend Space Academy Level 1. My intrest continued to grow and i continued to collect space patches as well as other stuff. i even found some old newspaper articles about the shuttle my mom had saved for me in the early 80's. Ofcourse in 96 i went to AC and in 98 i went to ASA. Well thats the complete story of my first trip to space camp. Please feel free to comment or ask questions. Their have been verry few posts to this topic other than mine i would apreciate feedback.

Richasi · Post by **Richasi** » Tue Sep 03, 2002 9:15 pm

*clapclaps*

Very good. Enjoyed it. Makes me wish I knew what we ate from day to day. But I don't remember =)

I did pool my experiences from both Camp, Academy and Beyond into a book that's about... 140 pages long. I might post it online sometime. I'm in the process of adding some details that I've recently learned thanks to you guys and Kemara...

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Wed Sep 04, 2002 6:46 am

Well maybe come april i'll do another one this time for space academy level 1 then one for AC and ASA in July.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 4:01 pm

Well next month will be the 10th anniversary of my second trip to camp when i went to Space Academy Level 1. Last time when i did this whole daily posting of a day by day account of my trip to camp i didnt get much response so i want to know is there any intrest in me doing one for Space Academy Level 1 this april?

sts205cdr · Post by **sts205cdr** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 6:39 pm

Post away, Jason, I'm interested!

--John