Callington Community College

Due to the fact that the ARES 1-X was launched the day before it meant we could have a slight lie-in in the morning.

So the day commenced with a drive to the ATX for the last time on the trip.
The first activity of the day was to put the finishing touches to our rockets. Then we walked over to the launch pad to fire our rockets, 5 at a time, to see which were successful with take-off and landing. Once we had established that there were a few faulty connections on the circuits of some of the launch pads, which we then avoided, all the flights were successful, with parachutes deploying correctly for everyone.

Strolling back to the ATX building we were then split into two groups to be shown the inside of a shuttle and to commence the simulation mission based around the Hubble Space Station. This mission had never been completed by any school group or even employees of ATX! Both of our groups were successful and finished in under an hour, which Thomas, who runs the facility, has long been trying to convince people is possible. Everyone had really good fun as well as working together as a team, despite being threatened with an emergency just before touch down!

After a lunch, which was skillfully supervised by Gill, we set off for our tour of Kennedy Space Centre and Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. Cape Canaveral is an amazing place as it is where all the launch pads are found. We saw many launch pads on the tour including the Mercury Redstone launch pad which was where Alan Shepard became the first American in space with a sub-orbital flight. We also saw where the shuttle for the STS-129 mission will launch from, aswell as the launch pad where ARES 1-X launched from the previous day. Looking at the launch pads from early missions it was incredible to see how close the firing rooms were to the rockets, considering that nowadays the closest buildings to the launch pad are 3 miles away. The construction workers had to come up with innovative designs to provide enough protection for those in the firing room. We were lucky enough to visit the launch pad where the Apollo 1 disaster occured. It was incredibly poigniant as despite the fact that it was a huge tragedy, in a way it was inevitable and also good that it happened on the ground and not in space, as it allowed them to do more investigations and so make future rockets safer. The 3 astronauts that died were Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. As Gus Grissam said 2 weeks before his death: 

“If we die, we want people to accept it. We’re in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”

NASA are now considering making this lauch pad into a memorial site as is the wish of the 3 astronauts families. This will include what is left of the Saturn 1-B that they perished in. This will allow people to never forget the risk that these men gave for the development of the space program and how important it is to honour their lives in the continument of the exploration of space. 

After visiting the launch pads we went back to Kennedy Space Centre to see the Apollo/Saturn V display. Here we relived the moments that made history. We saw the build up and the launch of the Saturn 5 in a video. After the presentation we then moved on to see a refurbished Saturn 5  rocket, touched moon rock and looked at an astronaut space suit with moon dust on.

Overall the day was very long and tiring but good fun!

In the evening we headed out to an Italian restaurant where we had our last meal together before we left for England the next day. We were joined by Tomas Fredricks, David Hodge and Dave’s father, Bill who was a Rocket Engineer for many years.

After Ares being delayed the day before we had another long day ahead of us, as the launch window of Ares was once again from 8am-12pm. Waking at 5.30am we reached the ATX expecting Ares to launch around 8 due to good weather conditions on the day. However there was a thunderstorm the night before and one lightning bolt was close to the rocket to they were reluctant to launch until extra electrical checks had been undertaken. Therefore we started the ATX experience at 9am with many tasks that were lined up for us these including rocket building/launching and studying projectiles and trejectories. Also after the launch of the Ares rocket we commenced on the astronaut training.

The Ares launch was an amazing experience as it was the first flight test of a single rocket booster designed to carry the orion module to the moon. The purpose of the flight was to ensure that the booster wouldn’t not rotate in flight but also to ensure that all the electrical sensors worked to keep the rocket on course. The test flight only lasted 2mins as they only needed to check that the separation of the rocket booster to the main module.

For the astronaut training we were split into four groups to complete numerous tasks. The four tasks were the 1/6th gravity wall, the centrifuge simulation and museum, the multi-axis trainer and finally the flight simulator which was a taster for what we were facing the next day.

After all these great experiences our day didn’t end there as we started our hour drive to Orlando to watch the opening basketball match of  the new season for Orlando Magic. There opposition was the Philadelphia 76ers. The match ended with the score being 120-106 to magic. The experience on the whole was like no other as the support and compassion for the team was immense. Magic played as a team and kept pushing for a win but certain players stood out, one being Dwight Howard being partnered by Vince Carter as a set up. This is one evening none of us will ever forget.

We awoke at 4.15, to leave at 5.30 all excited for the hopeful launch of Ares 1-X. We arrived at the ATX (Astronaut Training Experience), and were met by Thomas, the Director of Education at the Centre. When we arrived, the area was deserted so we hung around until we were let in by Rea. We settled in the Jupiter Classroom, and blogged until 8am, when we went up to the roof to wait for the launch to begin (the launch window was from 8am-12pm). Unfortunately, the launch was immediately delayed, and we went back down to continue our work. We went up and down those stairs several times and by 11.30, the last possible window for the launch was over… The first problem was that data streaming from the rocket to the control room was faulty. After a quick fix, the rocket was ready to go as soon as the rain cover was unplugged from the top of the rocket. This was very difficult but as soon as they got the rain cover off, there was a cargo ship in the exclusion zone. After a ticking off from NASA, the ship stopped its loitering. Once again, the rocket was now ready to go. The countdown started from 4 minutes, however the weather intervened and cloud cover would have been too thick when t-0 came. Once the clouds had cleared, we thought the rocket would launch, but the weather changed rapidly and the wind picked up to over 20 knots. The launch was scrubbed.

Although everyone was pretty disappointed (and tired), we still have a chance to see the launch on Wednesday.

After the launch failed, we went to Kennedy Space Centre to explore. Some of us did the Shuttle Experience, which simulated the way it feels to be launched into space, while others visited the IMAX theatre to see Magnificent Desolation, about man’s relationship with the moon.

We spent 2 hours at KSC, and then headed on to Merritt Island Mall. We ate some much needed lunch, and then went shopping. As ever, some were more successful than others, and the usual culprits left empty-handed.

After going to the mall, we paid a visit to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. It was huge, and people ran around madly to find things they had planned to buy. There were others of us, however, who had a more relaxed visit, and chose to just browse the store.

We then returned to the hotel to change, and then headed off to the beach to meet up with the IB students we met at Cocoa Beach High School on Monday. We made an attempt at volleyball. Much to our surprise, not all American’s are brilliant at the sport either… At least we aren’t alone in that! We eventually gave up, and tried stuck in the mud instead. They call it Freezetag. They liked our name better… It wasn’t all that successful either, as it was quite dark by this time and nobody knew who was on! Piggyback racing followed, with much more success for the British, Martin winning three times consecutively with Andrew. We finished off with a singsong, with Hywel on the Ukelele, and the rest of us singing (“like angels”, according to Mr. Grocott… do I detect sarcasm??). We left at 8.30pm and some of us went to Walmart to stock up on essential supplies. Everyone else did blogging and went to the pool.

Everyone went to bed early, ready for another 4.30am start the next morning!

As this was our first full day in florida we settled in by immersing ourselves in the local culture by visiting cocoa beach high school. The more energetic of us had already been for a run along the beach at 6:30 (kate and mary the only girls!!), whilst those of us who were looking for a more relaxed start went for a gentle stroll later. We than travelled to a local school, Coco beach high. At the school we met some really nice students who are studying the international baccalaureate and at lunch time they introduced us to some of their friends. In some ways our school experiences were very different but in others remarkably very similar. At no points during their school career do they have to wear uniform, they have constant internal assessments which affect their final grades and also they have no free lessons. They also do not have free periods, but run a lot of clubs.

Whilst trying to recover from the severe heat at the school we hoped into the mini-busses complete with air-conditioning, which all of us have come to love over in the states. We drove down a typical florida street and came across an unassuming treasure trove. From a closer examination of the front window it was clear that the building was stuffed with NASA memorabilia and guinean artefacts, and above the window the sign U.S Space walk of fame. Splitting up into 3 groups we were given personal tours of the museum by gems of the NASA community including Sam Beddingfield who boasts a NASA employee number of 4. He lead us through santa’s grotto of space, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo rooms literally filled, and with every piece with a story. Also original Atlas mission control consoles. Following the unbelievable tour we were then lead outside to view the memorials twinned with museum rooms. This included plaques of actual Gemini, Mercury and Apollo hand prints.

After a well earned lie-in we left the hotel at 10am to start a day of travelling. Having an hour’s drive to the airport we drove by downtown Houston, only to find that we arrived at the wrong terminal. We were all at terminal C (international flights), whereas Mike, James and Richard were at terminal E (internal flights). Thankfully the airport officials allowed us through international check-in so we did not have to haul our (tentatively close to the weight limit) bags around the massive airport. Unlike Mike, James and Richard who took a internal train, long walks and probably a quick trip in a Saturn V, reaching us faster than a photon from jupiter, (about 43 minutes).

Flying along the south coast of the U.S.A was beautiful, with nothing to see but blue sky, and a polka-dot view of round clouds scattered over an azure sea. Travelling over Florida we could see jet-skis and speed boats dancing on the lakes. After landing we set our priorities east towards the Outback Steakhouse, an Australian themed restaurant. With everyone now sporting full bellies, we retired to our Wakulla suites. Using the last few minutes that our eyes were still open we found our way to our rooms and collapsed into our beds.

Woke bright and early to have breakfast to set us up for the long and busy day of shopping and the Ballunar festival.

We left the hotel to travel to Larry Allen’s Cowboy Shop where we admired the many western styled boots, clothing, hats and saddles. Larry Allen is an icon in Texas for rodeo as he has been world champion five times. Costa is now modelling some very nice genuine leather cowboy boots, and Hywel a Hardcore Cowboy belt!

After we left Larry Allen (not before a sneaky slice of cheesecake), we went to Baybrook Mall. It was pretty big. Lots of people went wild shopping, and only a few left empty-handed. Sofia and Hattie managed to break the world record for the amount of stuff one can buy in about an hour. Well done guys. We also ate lunch here.

Following this, a quick trip to Fry’s Electrical Store and a Sports store was in order. People bought G-Pants and astronaut ice cream. Very successful!

We now headed towards Ballunar Festival, picking Wendy up on the way. We had a brilliant time, picked up many freebies, but also enjoyed the stalls which were based on things like space medicine. We didn’t get to talk to the astronaut who came, which was a shame, but we did meet lots of other nice people.

At 6pm, we came back to the hotel to finish off our packing and get ready for our goodbye meal. It was only across the freeway but we drove anyway, because 26 kids across a freeway may have been a little like rabbits in headlights.

The meal was fantastic. We were joined by several people we had met earlier in the week: Dr. Liz Warren, Wendy Buckles and Raymond Samson. Liz is a physiologist who works with Mission Control in the medical team. She is in charge of every medical experiment that goes on in space, she also has to plan experiments on a short term and long term basis. Wendy, as you may already have read, is a member of the Docking Integration Team for the new Orion module. She works alongside Amber. Ray is the superintendent who works at Lockheed Martin, in the EDL (Equipment Development Laboratory). We were also joined by several new faces. George Abbey, who we had seen briefly on Day 2, kindly came to dinner. Mr. Abbey has been at NASA since the Apollo era and eventually finished as the deputy Director of Johnson Space Centre. Mr Abbey was responsible for the Shuttle -Mir programme which saw American Astronauts flying on the Russian Mir space station. Without him, many missions would never have happened. We also met Jean-Loup Chretien, the first French astronaut. It was amazing to meet a person who had actually been into space. He flew on Shuttle, Mir, Soyuz and Salut missions. He told us an interesting anecdote: He took a keyboard up to the Mir Space Station, and went to retrieve it 10 years later, whilst on a shuttle mission. Amazingly, it still works! Kevin Mellett also came to dinner, and was surrounded by crowds of us, listening to his intriguing stories. We all got the chance to speak to these inspiring figures, and everyone got so much out of the experience, from being inspired to learning new things, or simply listening to the amazing stories these people had to tell us. If any of our guests are reading this, please accept a huge thanks for giving up your precious time to help us and give us so much

When we got back to the hotel, it was about 11pm. Everyone was shattered and ready for a good sleep, before a day of traveling to Florida on Sunday.

This morning we started by updating our blog by adding more information and pictures to show you what an amazing time that we are having. After this the Cornish showed the whole group how to play Irish Snap, which went down well with everyone.

For lunch we went to the Clear Lake Park where we took in the views and enjoyed our subs. However we were joined by a giant flock of birds, which were bigger than seagulls.

Having a short drive to Lockheed Martin, we were joined by Wendy Buckles who is one of Amber Gell’s colleague and friend. After signing into the facility, we were then joined by Marlene Base who was an Engineering consultant but started out from a medical background and Olivia Fuentes who kindly gave us a talk and tour of the facilities during her busy schedule of conferences. We were actually the first ever group of students to be allowed into Lockheed Martin for a tour. We felt very priveleged!!

We then went in to the EDL (Exploration Development Laboratory) to see the simulator equipment that we’ve all heard so much about from Amber. We split the group into three and rotated around three different bases: The docking simulator, which some students were able to have a go on (!). Another group saw a mockup of the Orion Module, which we were allowed into. We discovered that astronauts travel in style AND comfort… the seats were amazing, and apparently based on a racing car model. The final group saw the cockpit operators station mock up, which was shown to us by Alan Asp, a software programmer, also working on the docking mechanism. We had a fantastic time doing all this, and were also able to speak to some other engineers, who were very helpful too. After we had finished our tour of the EDL, we had a debrief  from Mr. Grocott.

We left Lockheed Martin after this, and went to a local supermarket to buy some food for dinner. When we got back to the hotel, we had real American pizza(!!!) and then went, on mass, to the pool. Had an amazing time playing water polo and then soaking in the hot jacuzzi. Heaven. Came back in for a slice of cheesecake (we deserved it after so much swimming) and then started uploading today’s blog (now…). We are just going to finish this then will probably head for an early night.

Today was a really good chance to recharge batteries, and we are all very excited for what lies in store for tomorrow!

Day 3 was a fantastic day. We got up at about 6am, and after some of us went to the gym, we all met in time to go out to ihop (the international house of pancakes). We ate a huge amount, and were all feeling pretty defeated by the end of breakfast!

After ihop where we said our goodbyes to Amber, who will unfortunately not be able to join us for the rest of the trip, we set off for Johnson Space Centre. We arrived, and after a short look around the shop, we had a tour of the Space Gallery from Mr Grocott (tour guide in training) where we learnt about the history of space and the very first rocket. Following this, we were picked up by our guides to go on the Level 9 (VIP) tour! To start with, we went for lunch at the NASA canteen, and then the real fun began! There was an astronaut in front of us in the dinner queue!!

To start the tour, we went to HANGAR X where they were constructing the mockup of the Altair, which was much bigger than we expected when compared with the lunar lander. We also saw some mockups for the astronaut habitats on the moon. They were inflatable! Watch our for inflatable homes near you!

Next on the tour, we went to the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) which is a huge pool, the biggest on Earth in fact. It is 12.5m (40ft) deep, takes 24 million litres of water to fill it, and a month to fill. Buzz Aldrin had the idea, to simulate weightlessness. Astronauts get in the pool, with 6 scuba divers looking after them each!! They practise doing tasks under the water on full size mockups. We saw the British astronaut, Nicholas Patrick, in the water, which was fascinating.

Hopping back into personal minibus, “full V.I.P treatment”, we travelled north west, towards Ellington Field. This is where the astronauts can turn up, pick a plane from the host of T-38s, and nip down to Florida when it takes thier fancy. Our flight will be 3 plus 2 hours of check in and security, trier flight only 2.5, (lucky!). Driving round the airfield we saw part of NASA’s fleet of other aircraft hiding in hangers but also saw a Gulf Stream 3 jet landing. The pilot pushes the “reverse thrust” button so the plane lands just like a shuttle, bearing in mind that this would make a normal jet crash, very soon very fast, shows how skilled the pilots are that fly the space shuttle! We were told that the engineers monitoring landing simulators like deliberately sabotage the brakes and switch to night time.

We left the NBL, and went to the Mission Control Centre. We were sat, watching one mission control working, when a fire alarm went off (which was indicated by a flashing light, causing several accusations of using camera flash!). We were rushed into the car park, where we stood for a while. After 5 or 10 minutes, a flight director, Royce Renfrew, came over and we started to talk to him. He was really interesting, and had actually started off as a maths teacher!! (That’s right Mr. Moore ) He had had a series of jobs in NASA, and had finally been nominated as a flight director. In fact, he is going to be the flight director for the last shuttle flight. We finally were allowed back into the building, and were sitting behind Mr. Renfrew’s team, and he came out and invited us into mission control!!!

This is apparently very rare (U2 and Bono got the privelege the week before), and we got to have pictures and look at the room from the inside.

After this, we were all reeling, but went off to look at historic mission control, where the first lunar mission was successfully directed from. We also saw a flag that had been to the moon – twice!

We then went to the Astronaut Training Facility, where we saw full scale mockups of the ISS, space shuttle and many other vehicles. Astronauts are taught about their tasks in space here, and we learnt that every astronaut has up to 5 instructors assigned to them at one time! Amazing. We saw a full scale model of the shuttle. We will probably be the last NASA group to see this as the shuttle is being decommissioned next year! We also saw “The Chariot”, a lunar rover, designed to be able to scale the mountains and craters it traverses. It has just returned from having trials in the Arizona desert. We also saw the Cupola Viewing Laboratory, which was designed and built by the Italians in the European Space Agency, and due to be launched in February 2010!

The final part of the tour led past the grove of trees which are planted in remembrance of each deceased astronaut. At christmas white lights are lit up on all the trees except that of Pete Conrad, who has red lights, to reflect the way he lived life. We ended up at the site of the Saturn V, which was an awe inspiring site. Until about 8 years ago it was falling into progressively worse states of disrepair until it was renovated using money from a wide variety of sources. Only the owl who used to live in it was unhappy with what happened, but now he’s got a box on the outside wall of the building.

By the time the tour finished the Centre had been closed for 20 minutes, so we just had time to photograph an actual lunar lander and find the lost mini bus keys, or not in Jame’s case, before heading back to the hotel.

During the meal at La Brisa mexican we were privileged to be joined by musicians from the Houston Philharmonic  Orchestra, local primary school teachers and various NASA engineers. No one managed to finish their meals, even the appetisers that some ordered in the hope of not being too full was as large as your average Sunday Roast! Once everyone had eaten their fill, those who had not originally been seated with one of our  guests had the chance to mingle and meet some, whilst others moved around to talk to people from other disciplines. Everyone seemed to be having a really good time finding out what their jobs involved, and also general comparisons between Texas and the UK, and also other parts of America. Only the waiters wanting to get the use of their room back finally brought the conversation to a halt.

We started the morning at 6 to be greeted by breakfast and a waffle machine. Part of the NASA process was to make a successful waffle, which Rich (a leader) failed at due to “technical problems” (i.e. he couldn’t follow cooking instructions!) We, also tried a Texas delicacy called kolache which is a filled breakfast roll.

Then we set off to the local wildlife park where, at George Observatory, we did a mock flight to the Moon and Mars. The first group was slightly more successful as, unlike us, they didn’t nearly die due to lack of oxygen or undergo an emergency landing!

After this we had a lesson on spectroscopy and the life of stars. This ended with us wearing sci-fi glasses which refracted light, which was crazy when camera flashes went off! We took a look inside the observatory looking at the 36-inch reflector telescope, and the slightly longer 11-inch refractor, along with two smaller guidance telescopes. The observatory also boasted a hydraulic floor, allowing the floor to rise up so even Mary could see through the eyepiece, and a mechanically rotating roof, giving a 360 degree view of the sky! We ended the session by staying behind and discussing fascinating subjects like the nature of black holes and theory of parallel universes .

We then had the chance to stroke a tarantula, an alligator and a snake (Kate mentioned she would like an alligator, as long as it stays 12 inches long!).

After a sightseeing visit to Walmart we had an amazing meal at the East Star (a chinese buffet), and met some of Amber Gell’s colleagues from NASA. They were all really friendly and inspiring. They made the impossible seem possible, if you have the aspiration, the attitude and the imagination to achieve it. Another thing that amazed was the fact that many of the engineers were only seven or eight years older than us, and had had several influential jobs, shaping their careers even as young adults. Even if you don’t go into a science or mathematically related course or pathway, you can always change directions and there are millions of opportunities. Mary and Kate were very interested when one of the engineers offered to provide contact details for a flight surgeon based in England. They hope to follow this up on Friday.

How cute and we got to stroke them!!