Space Camp Day 3: STS Mission Positions

            Nestled near the edge of the Appalachians a woman nervously paced as she awaited her command post for her first mission. The birds were happily chirping in tune with the gentle breeze as it blandly rustled the trees. The deep rays of the sun high overhead created small beads of nervous perspiration that now sat on her forehead. She didn’t notice the birds, or the heat the extreme heat. She only focused on the ground before her counting her steps. She always paced and counted her steps when she was nervous. Today is the day she had been waiting for. Today is the day she had been training for. Today, she would be given her position on the Orion mission. She had hoped for an EVA, an extravehicular activity. She dreamed about being on one of these missions for as long as she could remember. She wanted it so badly, she could taste it.

            She trained every day, trying to put herself in the best possible condition she could. She spent more time studying than the rest of the recruits preparing for any possible situation. But she also knew she wasn’t the only one who wanted it. She couldn’t forget about the Canadian and the Russian on the same mission. They too had put in for it. The crew trainer called the recruits together. They all stood at attention, hands behind their back, looking like toy soldiers lined up in their blue flight suits. It was time to walk over to the Mission Center Complex. All 14 recruits filed into MOCR, the mission operations control room, where they director would announce positions.

            She silently prayed, please God, if you’re listening today, please let me do an EVA. Please don’t let it go to the Russian, not the Russian. It wasn’t that she had anything against the Russian, it was just that he seemed to get all the best positions. The director looked around, cleared his throat, glancing down at his clipboard, he gave a speech telling the recruits not to be disappointed with any positions, and that every position was just as important as the rest.

            “We are team, recruits.” He said in his southern twang, “we work together on this one. I know some of y’all were hoping to put on the bunny suit today.” That’s how they referred to the suit that the astronauts wore when going on a space walk. “But, not everybody gets to play the hero. Your crew trainer will go through your jobs. Let’s all be careful out there.” He handed the clipboard to the crew trainer who briefly scanned the room.

            “Uh, oh.” She said to herself.

            “What’s wrong?” her classmate whispered leaning towards her.

            “She’s not making eye contact, that’s not a good sign.” She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, opening them and looking straight ahead as the crew trainer made her announcements.

            All the recruits stood waiting to exhale until all of the announcements were made. There were sighs of relief from classmates as their names were called for ISS, International Space Station. It was time for Orbiter positions; she crossed her fingers and prayed again. She let out a huge sigh when she realized her name wasn’t called. The trainer continued through the MOCR stations; EECOM, not her. PAYCOM, not her. FDO, CAPCOM, GNC, again, not called. Everyone excitedly started talking before the trainer could finish the list. She went through the list again. Flight Director.

            “Okay”, she thought to herself, slightly deflated. It was better than EVA officer. They only provided directions and support to Flight Engineers while they were on EVA. That would be too much of a slap in the face, especially considering the Russian and the Canadian get to do the EVA. “Flight Director,” she smiled to herself as she let the words glide off her lips. She knew it was an important role. She was literally responsible for crew safety and success of the entire mission. She would also have deciding vote/rule on all anomaly situations. She could handle that; after all, didn’t she have the utmost respect for Gene Kranz, Flight Director for Apollo 13? And of course, she admired Michele Brekke, the first female Flight Director in 1985 too.

            She settled into her chair at the command center computer module marked FLIGHT. She put

on the headsets, set the channel, and spoke, “Mission Control, this is Flight Director. Complete final pre-flight checks and prepare for lift-off for Atlantis and her crew.” Yep, this would do nicely.

Space Camp Day 2: 37 States, 25 Countries, 1 Mission

Day 2: Mission 37 States, 25 Countries

Well, our 4^th suite mate showed up last night, late. Like after midnight late. Her name is Aring and she is from Indonesia! Freaking, Indonesia. I am just amazed at how far teachers have come for this experience. Today, I met teachers from Ireland, South Africa, and Russia. It was announced at our morning session after breakfast that there were teachers representing 37 states and 25 different countries!

With my knapsack packed, flight suit on, of course, I was ready for my first mission. Today was referred to as media day. There was a lot of picture taking. And I mean a lot. The weather in Alabama is finicky. It was chilly this morning in which I was happy to don that beautiful flight suit but by late afternoon trying to get a full group picture, followed by team pictures, and country pictures, and then of course individual pictures in the hot sun with the shuttle in the background, I was spent. I hadn’t realized just how hot those suits are! You would think NASA engineers could come up with a light-weight fabric for those things. By the time we finished pictures, all I could think about was stripping that thing off and grabbing a cold beer.

I had the opportunity to listen to and meet two guest speakers today, Ed Buckbee and Bob Springer, and take a facilities tour. Ed Buckbee had been with the US Space program for over 40 years. He started his career when the first Mercury astronauts were selected. He, along with Werner von Braun, conceived and developed the first exhibit relating stories about the first astronauts. He also started the International Space Camp. I have to admit, I kind fan faved here, when he autographed the book he wrote, The Real Space Cowboys, about the first seven astronauts. He spelled my name wrong, but hey, I still got his autograph! And for a guy who’s now in his 70’s, he looked awfully darn cute in his green Space Camp jacket!

Next, a retired NASA engineer walked us through the history of the shuttle program and the functions of the shuttle itself on a facilities tour. He was a wealth of information including the fact that Saturn 5 weighed over 6 ½ million pounds, with 6 million of those pounds being fuel! He also had much to say about the government decreasing the budge with only about 4/10 of 1% of the federal budget supporting NASA. I was kind of saddened by the fact that the only way the US could get to the International Space Station is to hitch a ride with the Russians. I knew we were no longer operating the Shuttle but I had no idea that was our only ride into space. There is talk of missions to Mars but our tour guide seemed to think that was much further off into the future than officials are reporting, unless that budget changes. Maybe NASA could hold a big raffle or sell candy or popcorn door to door like the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts do to raise money? Hey, I might be on to something there. It’s really a shame that our future generations won’t have the same enthusiasm for space exploration as there was in the 1960’s. What’s the matter with our government officials? Haven’t they ever watched Star Trek, The Right Stuff, or Apollo 13 and think wow, someday, I would love to ride in a space shuttle?

Our last speaker was astronaut, Bob Springer, who was a mission specialist on both Discovery (1989) and Atlantis (1990). It was his personal stories of flight missions that both awed and inspired me. When asked about astronaut training, a question about going to bathroom came up. I have to admit, I was kind of curious about that too! He had told us about the time he refused to wear the MAG, Maximum Absorbency Garment, other wise known as NASA adult diapers. I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t want to either. He commented that in order to imagine what it would be like to use one, we would need to put one on, lay on our backs on the bathroom floor, with our feet propped up on the side of the bathtub, and try and go pee. “Let me tell you, it ain’t easy,” he said with a grin. 

It just didn’t seem like the day could get any better, but it did. We headed back to the educational center where we sat in an auditorium to hear about the specific mission jobs that we will be partaking in. We ran through what each role was and from there had to choose and rank our top choices. I took a fancy to a few different roles including that of Base Commander, who is responsible for all crew activities and operations in Shackleton Crater, Commander of the Orion Capsule, Lunar Mission Specialist, which means I would get to do an OLE (Open Lunar Excursion, which is a fancy name for Space Walk), and Flight Engineer for the International Space Station. I only get to do one of these jobs, so I needed to choose wisely. I probably should go with my head rather than my heart, but I think the overwhelming desire to wear an actual space suit drove my final decision. We were told that only the Type A personalities should go for the positions of Commander and Flight Commander, especially those that liked to order others around and are control freaks. My children would tell you, that’s me. I marked myself down for both space walks, as did just about everyone else in the group as I think putting on that white suit would be blast, but I’m not sure how the process goes. There was a questionnaire that we methodically filled out regarding our abilities to take charge, and our rankings of our desired positions, which we were told they would carefully look over and make decisions from there, but I’m wondering if really, if after a few beers (it is Biergarten Night back at the Shuttle exhibits) those crew directors don’t just randomly pick out of a hat and say the hell with it. I don’t know why, but I really want to try and do a space walk. So what if I’m claustrophobic, it’s freaking Space Camp, and I’m damn well going to get over my fears once and for all. I have to wait until tomorrow to find out my mission position. Wonder who I can bribe to let me be in one of those space walks? What do you think, 50 bucks should do it? Or another round?