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  Did you go to Space Camp (or Space Academy)? (Page 2)

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Author Topic:   Did you go to Space Camp (or Space Academy)?
sts205cdr
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Posts: 649
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 09-25-2011 11:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
They will put you through the ringer even during a weekend session. How fast can you pre-start the APUs? Uh oh, you've got a fuel cell Caution and Warning with back up, Mission Control is pleading for you to get those APUs started!, plus you've got an AV Bay Temp Caution and Warning (why weren't you monitoring that screen? FIRE!), and now your PLT has just collapsed into dead weight against panel R1...

Welcome to Space Camp, any day, any MET.

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 09-26-2011 11:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sounds like fun to me, can’t be much worse than some of my earlier active duty training situations in uniform (“You have Sappers in the wire, someone just dropped persistent nerve agents on your fighting positions, your OPs just got overrun, and you're about to be hit with indirect fire and opposing rotary wing attack elements. What are you going to do now, Lieutenant?").

Seriously, I wanna go. Bad. Now I just need to tell the wife...

turk242
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From: Monterey, CA USA
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posted 10-02-2011 09:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for turk242   Click Here to Email turk242     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I worked at the Titusville Space Camp between 96 and 97. I remember working 30 days straight without a single day off once. I absolutely loved that job - and they knew it. I calculated my salary at the time to be about 3.18 an hour since I would put in double the hours I was hired for. But I just couldn't leave the kids if one was homesick or had some problem. Also when I was done I would hang out in the museum and ride the sims all I wanted. I also really enjoyed hanging out at the space center, watching the kids light up at seeing the shuttle or doing the sims, memorizing every IMAX movie they had!

I remember once I had just finished a camp week and decided to ride the 3-G trainer to relax. I'm standing there in line and right up behind me walks up Alan Shepard! He wanted to ride the thing too and made a joke to me about "how 3Gs was nothing - in the Mercury capsule we were pulling 10-12 Gs!" It was a great job and a special time in my life - thank goodness I wasn't there for the money!

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
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posted 11-11-2011 11:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Apparently there has been at least one 3-day version of the adult space camp. I wonder how much they can pack into a short timeframe like that? I brought up the idea with my long-suffering wife. She didn't even roll her eyes all that much.

Oddly, you hardly ever see Space Camp flight suits for sale on eBay, they're all tiny sizes and the larger ones go for a bundle, but apparently you can just go to Huntsville and buy one there. I recently bought a small adult one for my wife in case she ever needs a quick Halloween costume.

p51
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posted 02-07-2012 10:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Funny, but when the recent TV movie, "A Smile as Big as the Moon" came on TV, my wife watched it with me. At the end I brought up how badly I wanted to go and how we could easily afford it with all the overtime I've been working since last summer.

She's been wanting me to go down to Florida and spend time with my parents (alone, so I can do the chores for them that they don't want to 'burden' me with when she's around) and I said I combine the two as they live not THAT far away from the Camp (about a 6 hour drive, I reckon). She was actually checking out the website the very next day and has since talked about it. My God, i might actually get to go!

I also found a recent camp flightsuit that fits as well for dirt cheap.

I'm crossing my fingers something awful here but this fall I might get to go...

Jay Chladek
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From: Bellevue, NE, USA
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posted 02-08-2012 02:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well if you get to go, a new flightsuit I believe is part of the package anyway (or at least an option, but most campers end up buying the flightsuit at the end of the session). Why get a used one when you can have one all your own?

As for the drive, if we are talking a visit to Kennedy Space Center (I don't know where your parents live as Florida is a BIG state), the drive is more like 12 hours than 6 as you cut through part of Georgia around Atlanta to get there and the speed traps can be numerous if you try to use a different route around Atlanta that isn't interstate based.

SpaceKSCBlog
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posted 02-08-2012 05:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceKSCBlog   Click Here to Email SpaceKSCBlog     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I went to the adult program in Huntsville in 1986, 1989 and 1994. Konrad Dannenberg was still around to explain rocket propulsion. History lecturing to us.

In 1986, they still had the old training dome as seen in the SpaceCamp movie.

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
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posted 02-08-2012 08:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
Well if you get to go, a new flightsuit I believe is part of the package anyway (or at least an option, but most campers end up buying the flightsuit at the end of the session).
I couldn’t get anyone to confirm if they threw in the flightsuit or not. It's no big deal as I collect flight gear anyway, so an extra suit won't be a problem for me. When you collect and research flight gear as one of your hobbies, you normally don't want to rely on someone to hook you up for the right clothing.

I've heard that frequent Space Camp attendees often personalize their flight suits anyway. When I was in the Army I often bought better equipment than I was issued (that is really common now).

My parents live in Tallahassee, just south of the Georgia border. I just checked Mapquest and now I know why I never drove up there on a lark when I still lived there. It’s almost exactly 400 miles away.

My wife and I are tentatively planning a cross-country sightseeing trip from Tallahassee back to where we live in Washington state. I have proposed flying down there first a few days before this strip, flying to Atlanta, going to Space Camp, then on to Tallahassee where my wife would fly soon afterward. Atlanta to Huntsville is about half the distance and I'd likely pass through Chattanooga so I could hit the big railroad museum there (which is another hobby of mine).

sts205cdr
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From: Sacramento, CA
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posted 02-09-2012 12:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm signed up for a weekend in September, and my GF is talking about joining me for Huntsville sight-seeing, and from there seeing the "show" in Orlando. Of course, from there, it's just a short trip to the REAL showplace...

I patch my Space Camp flightsuits just like the current astronauts do. No other way to do it, in my opinion. I leave off the Mach 25 patch, as we all do, out of respect.

"Being an astronaut is a state of mind" --Walt Cunningham

Jay Chladek
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From: Bellevue, NE, USA
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posted 02-09-2012 03:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by p51:
It's almost exactly 400 miles away.
400 miles isn't that bad. That part of Alabama has a lot of up and down driving in the mountains though as I see you would have to zip down 281 from Montgomery (after Interstate driving from Huntsville), AL to get to Tallahassee (not sure what that drive is like, but I expect it to be hilly as well).

The drive from Atlanta to Huntsville is not bad. If you indeed zip through Chattanooga, then on the drive down I-65 you can plan for a stop at the Alabama Welcome Center right after you cross the border. You'll know it when you see it as it has a Saturn 1B standing vertical! Granted the Saturn V replica is impressive in its own right as it towers over the other rockets at USSRC, but seeing an actual Saturn 1B out in the middle of the countryside is NOT what one might expect at all.

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
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posted 02-09-2012 11:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by sts205cdr:
I patch my Space Camp flightsuits just like the current astronauts do.
How has that gone over? Do others have a negative reaction to that?

From the photos I've seen from Camp online, very few are of the adult program and I can't find a single shot where anyone's flight suit has been changed from the stock patch arrangement. I have been in e-mail contact with Phil Reeder, a Brit who regularly goes to the camp. He told me that generally people don't change the suits all that much but that he did his because he goes so often (swapping out the US flag for a union jack, added patches for the equipment he has used on simulators, stuff like that).

If I wind up going for sure, I'll be putting one of the Max Q '50th anniversary of Americans in orbit' patch where the 25th anniversary of Space Camp patch currently is on the right sleeve of the suit I now have (normally that's where the triangle shuttle patch seems to go). Otherwise, it'll stay stock.

I wouldn't have a shuttle patch on mine if I go to Camp, any more than I'd have an Apollo one. It's such a shame that there is no definitive program in the immediate future, because THAT is the patch I'd put on in such a case.

Phil is currently trying to get a eight-day camp going as there is currently only a three-day one for adults (actually more like two days and a couple of hours the way Phil describes it). He has an interesting blog here.

He's been trying to get me to sign on for the week-long camp, but I couldn't possibly get the time off this year for that and my wife did NOT react favorably to me being gone for more than a week and then it costing at least $1500. We're not exactly living paycheck to paycheck right now (we've been working a lot of overtime since last year) but it's hard even for me to justify that cost.

quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
You'll know it when you see it as it has a Saturn 1B standing vertical!
Wow, I had forgotten about that. I've never had the chance to go down that way before.

Mr Meek
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From: Chattanooga, TN
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posted 02-10-2012 07:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mr Meek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
If you indeed zip through Chattanooga, then on the drive down I-65 you can plan for a stop at the Alabama Welcome Center right after you cross the border.
The I-65 welcome center is between Huntsville and Nashville, not Huntsville and Chattanooga. It's still a gorgeous drive from Chattanooga to Huntsville, but it's rocket-free until you see the Saturn V at the USSRC.

Greggy_D
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posted 02-10-2012 11:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Greggy_D   Click Here to Email Greggy_D     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
p51, I wouldn't worry about the perception of you modifying your suit. I say go for it!

When I was at Space Camp this past August for the Parent/Child Program, I wore a real Launch/Entry Coverall from the pre-51L era. My daughter picked up the current standard issue royal blue flight suit, which was 80 bucks and included her name tag. The kids at Camp didn't comprehend the significance of my suit, but some of the adults sure did! One worker, who has been at the USSRC since the mid-80s remarked "Hey, you must have gone here in the 80s and you wore your suit again. Wait... that looks a little too real."

In my group, only one adult out of 7 bought a suit and 3 out of 7 kids wore them. I did notice nearly all the kids in the week long regular Space Camp program wore suits.

p51
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posted 02-10-2012 11:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Now that I think on it, there probably should be a separate thread about Space Camp collecting as I'm sure people collect memorabilia from there as well.

I have recently wound up with four camp flight suits, three of which are the earlier light blue ones. One of them has a tag that ID's it as a real launch/entry suit, which I was surprised to see as it's clearly a camp suit made of cotton.

The camp suits are made from very light material (which makes sense given how flipping hot it gets in that part of the country in the summer) and are loosely based on the Nomex CWU-27P flight suits that are really used. Some of the pockets are made differently than an issue one. For example, the knife pocket isn't the same (not like you'd really need that pocket at Camp anyway) and the sleeve cuffs are different as well as the pleating in the back often isn't the same.

I can get my hands on a real Nomex royal blue CWU-27P flight suit and slap real NASA mission patches on it easily, though not cheaply as the suits can be a bit pricey, around $150 or so when camp suits can be found complete for well under $100 on eBay if you're patient.

Alpha makes a sort-of NASA flight suit that follows no known pattern used by NASA or the military. I bought one not realizing what it really was, so I made a sci-fi flight suit out of it. I'd tell anyone to steer well clear of it because it's not a copy of anything and they are sized much smaller than they are marked. They're not cheap, either.

quote:
Originally posted by Greggy_D:
I wore a real Launch/Entry Coverall from the pre-51L era.
That is a neat story. The photos are great as well and I'm very envious as my wife and I couldn't have children and I would have loved to have an excuse to do what you did with your daughter (but that's another topic altogether).

I guess my only issue with me doing the same thing personally is that I would be self-conscious about people thinking I was either a real astronaut or trying to pass myself off as one. Heck, when I wear my modified Alpha crew jacket that I bought at the KSC gift shop, people routinely think I'm either an astronaut or work at NASA. It happens almost every time I've worn it in public and on a few occasions,

I've had to argue with people that I'm just a fan of the program and NOT an astronaut (seriously, who would argue that they weren't an astronaut if they were?). Maybe I just have the type of 'look' of a current mission specialist or it's the way I carry myself due to my prior military experience, I don't know what it is.

But I'd be sure that whatever I wore to camp would have the camp patches on it because I'd hate it if someone thought I was trying to pass myself off as the real deal.

NOTE: that is not to say that's what I thought you were doing, Greg!

p51
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posted 02-17-2012 09:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, I'm going to Space Camp, 30 years exactly after I first heard about it (at the time it opened, I guess). I dreamed of it as a kid but knew then that going was never going to happen at that point in my life. I'm pretty sure they didn't have adult programs way back then. So if any of you might be there from 7-9 September, look up the guy with glasses, bad hairline and a flight suit that looks just a tad bit different than everyone else's.

The odd part is that my wife was telling her sister and brother-in-law last weekend that I was going, and they thought it was pretty cool. I expected them to give me grief over doing something you'd normally think was just for kids. Never underestimate the power of the cool factor of space, I guess.

I have a new-condition camp flight suit that I'm going to replace the US flag patch with a more correct larger white-bordered one, as well as swapping out the shuttle patch for one of the MaxQ 50th anniversary of space flight patches. I've been told by a couple of people who have gone there that you must buy a flight suit if you want to keep one, so it made sense to me to have one tricked out like I wanted, ahead of time.

I'm not going nuts and swapping everything out, just a couple of patches to give it what I feel will be a far better 'look'. I actually stumbled across a more well-used extra one and grabbed it, too. I intend on putting real mission patches on that one and making it look like a real crew suit (I won't be putting my extra 'Mach 25' patch on it, though), for Halloween or something like that. I intend on putting the two mission patches of the launches I saw from a great distance (STS-33 and STS-51). Heck, I might take that one with me to camp as well, just for the heck of it.

Does anyone have any suggestions for someone going for the first time? Do they send you anything to read up on before you go? Three days doesn't sound like much time to get up to speed on anything.

I'd only recently discovered there had been a Space Camp near KSC. I hadn't known that before, and I grew up in Florida, only ever hearing of the Huntsville facility. When my parents, wife and I were at the Astronaut Hall of Fame building this past September, I jumped into the centrifuge there (hey, there was no line and I didn't have pay extra, why wouldn't I?). At that time, I had no idea that was part of the training equipment they kept in the building after the camp had closed.

The funny part was I remember thinking how cool it'd be if they had Space Camp there instead...

SpaceKSCBlog
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posted 02-18-2012 06:48 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceKSCBlog   Click Here to Email SpaceKSCBlog     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
When I went to Space Camp in the 1980s and 1990s, I boned up by reading the Space Shuttle Operator's Manual. I have no idea if it's still in print, but it was the source they used for developing the questionnaire used to assess campers' knowledge when making mission assignments.

When I went, it was a three-day camp with two missions, each about two hours. Important assignments like commander, pilot and mission director required advance knowledge, so first thing on Day 1 was to take a multiple-choice 25-question test. Those with the highest scores got the most important assignments on one mission; on the other, you basically monitored a console because you had a lot of studying to do.

Those with minimal knowledge wound up with two medium-range assignments, e.g. Mission Control on one and maybe a spacewalk on the other.

Space Camp used to have facilities in Huntsville, Titusville, Moffett Field and other places, but they almost went bankrupt a few years ago due to bad decisions by the CEO at the time. So I believe it's down to Huntsville now. Titusville has been converted into Camp KSC run by Delaware North, which has the KSC Visitor Complex contract. I think that's just a one-day gig, nothing like the three-day Space Camp.

For a while, Huntsville was also running an advanced adult camp that ran five days but I don't think they do that any more.

Jay Chladek
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posted 02-19-2012 06:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The shuttle operators manual is something I read quite a bit myself before going to Huntsville the first time. I messed up a couple of the questions on the test I was taking with another camper, but we must have done something good because he got pilot for one mission and I got Flight Director for a second one.

The questions as I recall were rudimentary trivia ones in combination with shuttle based ones (what is the angle of approach for the shuttle? for instance). I suppose they still do that since the process seemed to be in use when Mike's kids did their visit in 1989 (and the book version of "A Smile as Big as the Moon" went pretty in depth into the program since Mike and his assistant did a teachers based adult camp a year before the kids went).

Given we are moving beyond shuttle, I don't know what Huntsville has in store today. But I imagine shuttle based questions are still going to be somewhat high on the list.

I would say one of the most important things is to keep yourself well rested with your sleep cycle in check because they are going to PACK your days when there. Every waking minute when you aren't eating will probably be filled with something. Most important thing is to just have fun but try to treat it as serious as you can. But don't be wound up too tight.

If they are allowing people to wear the older suits, I'll have to see about trying to obtain an adult sized version of my 1985 vintage flight suit (or at least the patches) if I ever go back. I don't want to necessarily carve up my old one except as a last resort.

As for custom patches, I would wear a shuttle logo on mine since that is what we had in 1985 (and shuttle was MY space program). But for another one I've been pondering doing a book related version based on the "Mach 25" and "100 days" patches worn by the astronauts to commemorate some milestone of space book writing. Hmmm, "300 pages" perhaps?

Jay Chladek
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From: Bellevue, NE, USA
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posted 02-19-2012 06:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Meek:
The I-65 welcome center is between Huntsville and Nashville, not Huntsville and Chattanooga. It's still a gorgeous drive from Chattanooga to Huntsville, but it's rocket-free until you see the Saturn V at the USSRC.
It is still possible to dogleg over. Take I-24 to US 64 going through Fayetteville, then head straight south on I-65 after intersecting it on the other side. That way you don't have to go all the way to Nashville. Otherwise to get to Huntsville from Chattanooga would be to travel down US 72.

Granted it adds some distance, but if one is into Saturns, seeing the only Saturn 1B booster erected vertically in the country (the KSC one is on its side) makes for quite a view. Granted though the rocket park at USSRC has plenty of unique eye candy.

Ken Havekotte
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posted 02-19-2012 06:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Shame on me, but I never attended U.S. Space Camp, however, I was one of their first vendors and memorabilia consultants here at Space Camp in Florida when the facility first got underway.

On a few occasions I was permitted to visit and take part in several of their simulators and mockups here in Titusville (at both locations).

Most of my time there was either making deliveries, involved in meetings, participating in their functions, and visiting workers and astronauts there.

It was lots of fun, especially in the early development years!

FFrench
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posted 02-19-2012 09:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
But for another one I've been pondering doing a book related version based on the "Mach 25" and "100 days" patches worn by the astronauts to commemorate some milestone of space book writing. Hmmm, "300 pages" perhaps?
Jay, if you do that, sign me up for one!

Jay Chladek
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posted 02-20-2012 10:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by FFrench:
Jay, if you do that, sign me up for one!
In your case Francis (and Colin's), it would have to likely say "1500 pages."

I'll let you know what I come up with.

p51
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posted 02-26-2012 11:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I recently found a good forum for people who've gone to Space Camp.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-26-2012 11:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Hab1.com is the creation of Space Camp Hall of Fame inductee Vince Vazzo. It is the collectSPACE for Space Camp alumni.

If you've been to Space Camp, wanted to go Space Camp or even just saw "Space Camp," the movie, and liked it, you should bookmark Hab1.com and visit often.

p51
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posted 03-09-2012 10:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Timing can be crazy sometimes. I'd almost forgotten that when the news came out that Space Camp had first opened, I was in junior high and I asked my Mom to put some NASA patches onto a shirt I had to make it 'sort of' look like the suits I saw campers wearing on the news. I had a NASA 'meatball' and a STS-7 patch on it along with a nametape my uncle had given me. It looked cheesy, I'd bet, and there are no photos I know of where I'm wearing it, but I do remember wearing it a lot.

Recently, I decided I was going to get my own camp flight suit ahead of time and found one cheaply off eBay. It had the 25th anniversary patch where the triangle shuttle one normally used to be, so I took that off and decided to put a more correct NASA 'meatball' patch below it to replace the one that was there. The very next day, I was looking through some of my old Army patches in my collection (my primary hobby is researching and collecting US WW2 stuff) and I found the very same patches she'd put on that shirt back in 1982!

I'd already found an International Space Station patch to put where the camp anniversary patch was, but I felt that my old NASA patch just HAD to go on that sleeve, it was a moral imperative to me! So my flight suit will look a little different from everyone else's but not too much so.

englau
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posted 04-09-2012 10:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for englau   Click Here to Email englau     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Oh wow! I envy you, space alumnus!

Is Space Camp only in Hunstville now? I remember when I was little I wanted to go, but at the time I was told the one in Florida was going under and my parents didn't want me leaving the state for a five day event. Guess it just didn't fit into my schedule back then.

How did you alumnus of the adult space camp enjoy it? Did you feel like you got a lot out of it?

SpaceKSCBlog
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posted 04-10-2012 05:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceKSCBlog   Click Here to Email SpaceKSCBlog     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Florida site closed but has been taken over by the KSC Visitor Complex. Click here for more on Camp KSC.

p51
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posted 04-10-2012 10:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There’s an interesting discussion I started on the Space Camp “Hab” forum on camp flight suits and stuff of that type. Click here to read it.

HistorianMom
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posted 04-10-2012 02:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for HistorianMom   Click Here to Email HistorianMom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by englau:
Is Space Camp only in Hunstville now?
The "official" space camp is in Huntsville, and my son has been to two levels of it, plus two levels of their Aviation Challenge camp.

There are other space camps throughout the country, and for our money, the ones sponsored by the Kansas Cosmosphere are incredible, not only for the experience, but for the value. They have two or three levels "onside" in Hutchinson, but Level III campers get taken down to JSC for five days and get to go places and see things the general public doesn't; Level IV goes down to KSC for an engineering/technical week, and Level V goes out to California and tours the Jet Propulsion Center plus several private spaceflight test facilities.

sts205cdr
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posted 04-10-2012 09:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for sts205cdr   Click Here to Email sts205cdr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I went to the Cosmosphere "space camp" in February of 2002 (officially called "Adult Astronaut Adventure"), and we were the first non-Senior adults to attend the program and fly the Falcon motion-base Shuttle simulator.

Falcon lacked the visual replication of USSRC's Shuttle simulator flightdeck(s), but the ride was fun and challenging. They also used the same Binary Star flight software used at USSRC. I had a blast, along with the rest of my USSRC veterans!

And then there's the museum, which should not be missed by any space fan. I still cherish my autograph of Max Ary on my Falcon checklist. He signed it "Max Ary, Apollo 18." There's a story behind that...

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 04-30-2012 02:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I just read that in July there’s going to be an event for the 30th anniversary of Space Camp. It’s great that they’re doing something like this for the alumni. I just hope someone gets good photos of the retro uniform display/show. I’d love to see that but there’s no way I can go as I’m already scheduled for adult camp in September. I wonder if they’ll make 30th anniversary patches like they did for the 25th?

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 09-27-2012 12:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, I went to Space Camp and just got back from a road trip across the US right afterward (was gone for 19 days total). It was everything I ever could have hoped it'd be.

You can read about it here if you'd like.

JSC01
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From: Houston, Texas, USA
Registered: Nov 2011

posted 09-27-2012 10:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for JSC01     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
P51, those are great pics, thanks for sharing! Takes me back, I attended the adult academy there way back in the early 90s.

dogcrew5369
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From: Statesville, NC
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 09-27-2012 05:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for dogcrew5369   Click Here to Email dogcrew5369     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In 1987 I experienced Space Camp a number of times as a 16 year old....on HBO.

Corny I know.

Jay Chladek
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From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007

posted 09-28-2012 12:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
When I went, we didn't have the mission patch design bit (pity, as with my artistic talent I think we could have aced it). The cake on the ET and SRBs looks great Lee. Not everybody can do a 3D view like that on the fly.

I guess those notebook doodles we did back in grade school and high school came in handy.

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 09-28-2012 01:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dogcrew5369:
In 1987 I experienced Space Camp a number of times as a 16 year old....on HBO.
It's never too late, GO! I'm 42 and loved every darned minute of it. We had a guy who was about 55 and a guy in his 60s, all of us loved every second of it!
quote:
Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
The cake on the ET and SRBs looks great Lee. Not everybody can do a 3D view like that on the fly.
Thanks! It was funny to hear people murmuring when I was doing it. I swear I started with a blank sheet and a crude idea and got that finished sketch in I think about 10-15 minutes. It was a given we'd win best mission patch with that. Our trainer was blown away, she said nobody had ever cranked out a patch that good that she'd ever seen and none that fast. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

jutrased
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Posts: 65
From: North Smithfield, RI USA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 09-28-2012 01:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jutrased   Click Here to Email jutrased     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I went to the 5 day adult camp in 08 as a gift to myself for my 55th Birthday. And I wasn't the oldest there by far. We had a wide variety of people from all over including from England and Australia, a former Astronaut in Training (he had dropped out due to health issues), a husband and wife who had met as Space Camp counselors years earlier, and we even had someone with Cerebral Palsy who participated in almost every activity. It was probably the toughest vacation I ever had, but it was also the most fun.

My co-workers scoffed when I told them I was going, but once I got back everyone had questions and admired me for doing it. It something I still think about to this day and whenever anyone comes into my office and sees my “Space Academy” wings and photos of my group in our flight suits, I start telling all my stories again. We “flew” 4 short training missions and one all day final mission. In between there was never a moment’s rest as we tried the various simulators, rode an actual centrifuge, built and flew our own model rockets, and even climbed a 40 pole. We even got to meet Ed Buckbee, the author of "The Real Space Cowboys". It was a non-stop week.

So if you can take the time, you should go. You will not regret it.

p51
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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 09-28-2012 10:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by JSC01:
P51, those are great pics, thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I put together a simple video here of the photos myself and others got recently at Camp. Look here if you're interested.

p51
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Posts: 1642
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 10-21-2012 10:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Spaceguy5 here on the forum agreed to make patches for my Space Camp team from last month. I'm working with him to create my ultimate view of what the mission patch should look like. I think it pays justice to the original sketch I made in Huntsville:

We're going to be making actual patches of this very soon, and I will certainly have to sew one onto my camp flightsuit (which I intend to use again next year, already making plans to go back again).

p51
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Posts: 1642
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 10-25-2012 11:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Apparently, Space Camp is changing their logo now that the original shuttle logo really is out of date as of last year.

In a YouTube video that Space Camp just posted through their own channel [Editor's note: Video has since been removed], they show what appears to be the new logo at the very end. I was less than impressed...

p51
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Posts: 1642
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 09-27-2013 03:17 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I just got back from my second Space Camp experience. You can read about it here if you'd like. Scroll down about halfway as the first trip is on top of the page...


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