A Friday of Events

24 July 2009

Ellington Field~
We had a tour through work of Ellington Field. Its where they house the T-38s that the Astronauts train in and use to get from base to base for different training runs. Its also where they house the Gulfstream Jets used to teach the pilots of the shuttle how to land the shuttle (since a real shuttle can't be used).

It was a Lockheed based tour, which was fine. Lockheed Martin had a good deal to do with the training equipment and stuff in the building. We got to actually see the cockpit of a T-38 up close and personal. It was so cool, and I would love to get to work out there, but that won't happen. With the Shuttle retiring, a lot of things down here will go away.

Anyways, it was worth the 2.5 hours I couldn't charge that day!
EVA~
I also got to head over to Mission Control to watch the end of a space walk. I got there just before they finished up. But I got to watch the astronauts get back into the airlock. :D
Splashdown~
After work, we headed over to Space Center Houston to join the ever so long line of people heading to the Splashdown Celebration. It was neat, but the theatres filled up before we even got inside the damn building. We went to where there was suppose to be music, but they had set up another screen to play the speakers on instead.

We got to hear from the new NASA director Mr. Bolden, five flight directers from the era, Neil and Buzz. The flight directors were George Abbey, Gerald Griffin, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, and Glynn Lunney. Neil Armstrong had a good speak that clearly came from his heart. Buzz Aldrin had way more to say than he should have said. We aren't sure, but we think he might be losing his mind. Most of the guys stated what they thought about where NASA is currently headed and the general idea was "don't repeat Apollo". And it was pretty obvious, Neil does not really like to give speeches. He doesn't do media things very often. He is a private man.

It was just so crowded. So after a quick look around to see who we knew, we left. It was worth the experience, just to know those heros and great men were merely a room over from us! Close enough.

.... Work ....

Not really full adventures .... But anyways ....

Monday, I discovered "Main Event" isn't worth what it costs to go. I was a little disappointed I chose to go. But I got to meet a 5 other co-ops. A few of them work in FDOC in our building just on the first floor. That was good. Besides walking away with a sore ankle, it was fun to hang out a bit.

I got my full badge on Tuesday. I went to the lecture Space Flight 101 (and yet again, haven't gotten to sit through it all). It was so awesome. I will have to go back again and sit through it sometime! It will be worth it since I learn something new every time.

Freedom over Texas

July 4, 2009

The decision was made late on Thursday that Independence Day would be spent in downtown Houston for fireworks and festivities. It ended up being worth the drive and hassle.

We got there just before the festival area opened at 4pm. It was a hot day for sure. I found out later, Houston actually hit a record High that day. We hung around and checked out the NASA exhibit. It was neat. They had a few sized down models on display, including the new Atlas rocket and the shuttle. They had a moon rock on display that people were allowed to touch. So I can now say I have touched a MOON ROCK! :)
We walked down past the first army of port-a-potties. I thought it was just a little comic relief to see the armies of port-a-potties. I got a water, but I was foolish and didn't keep a steady flow into my body that day. I ended up not feeling thirsty until it was far too late. I developed a hell of a headache and no longer wanted to move. As the headache got worse, I realized it was me getting more and more dehydrated. I downed 2 bottles of water in about 20 minutes and within the next hour, I made myself eat. I was being evil to my body, and then I decided to do what I could to take a little better care in the stressful heat. There was also several tanks, like real big tanks, on the street. They were from a museum somewhere along the outer area of Houston. Its now on the list of places to visit!
Clay Walker played that night. Turns out I know a lot more of his songs than I realized I did. I rather enjoyed the concert, even from a long distance. We waited almost an hour in the line to get Alex a funnel cake, and I figured why not and got a Turkey leg. It was okay, not great.
We found a nice little spot on the hill and waited out the falling evening listening to music from Clay Walker. From this spot, there was hill sledding from the younger ages. The fireworks were at about 9:30 and ended just before 10pm. They did two identical shows for the two hills in the park. I thought it was really cool show set to music. It was worth the whole thing.

After the show, traffic was really bad. We walked down town for about an hour. I wanted to go down to the Theatre district and see what else was down there. Even after an hour traffic was still really bad, but we didn't have much trouble getting back into downtown from a side street and then out to 59 to 45-S. Oh the fun! Got home around 12:30am.