Livers' Locker: HESA Space Camp Day 1

Rise and shine for the first day of Space Camp. I woke up so excited about what was to come!! We were picked up and taken to the US Space and Rocket Center for breakfast. There was so much anticipation because we didn't know anything yet. To be a large group of teachers who are used to planning for others, we were all a little anxious about the unknown of this day. At breakfast we met all of the crew trainers that we would be working with for the next few days. They all seemed very excited to get busy.

We left breakfast to follow our crew trainer and meet the members of our team. My team was Columbus (each team is named after a module of the International Space Station). We were the smallest team with only 13 members compared to other teams with 15 or more. Our team was made up of 8 members from the US, 3 members from China, and 2 members from Turkey. We had little time to introduce ourselves because it was time to get started.

Our first event was a guest speaker. We were all seated in the auditorium to listen to a man I was not familiar with, Ed Buckbee. Mr. Buckbee spoke to us about the first astronauts in space...The Space Cowboys. We heard many stories from Mr. Buckbee about the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. Mr. Buckbee's stories were amazing and I found myself hanging on every word. He is such a great story teller that I could have listened to his stories all day.

Team Columbus with Ed Buckbee

At this point, my excitement for space was growing more and more. We were then taken to one of the museums at US Space and Rocket Center. I was surprised to walk in and see Saturn V stretching across the ceiling of the museum. I had never seen anything so big! We met our docent, Luke Talley, at the museum and he began to tell us everything one could ever want to know about Saturn V and its journey into space. We were all amazed at the detail this docent was sharing with us. At one point, we even had another docent follow our group because he said he wanted to hear what Mr. Talley had to say. At that point, I thought we must have a special guide. Walking underneath Saturn V and hearing about everything that went into engineering this rocket was leaving me feeling like a kid who had just heard of space for the first time.

At the end of our tour, Mr. Talley asked us to follow him so he could show us the best part. We followed along around the back of an exhibit and there was a picture of a young Luke Talley working for IBM on the computer system for Saturn V. This entire time we had been listening to this man talk about a rocket that he had worked on himself.

Team Columbus with Luke Talley

Saturn V Engine

Saturn V Fuel Tank

After lunch we were able to take a tour of the facility. I went back to the museum to look at some of the exhibits that I had missed before. It was then time to get ready for another guest speaker. This speaker was Astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger. Dottie spoke to us about her resupply mission to the International Space Station. She shared lots of pictures and stories about her experience. The most exciting thing about Dottie's story is that she was also a teacher. She was the first space camp alumna to become an astronaut.