Space Camp

by Brandon Bogie

Last April I went on an amazing trip with 4H. I had the opportunity to travel to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Even the way there was fun, all 903 miles of it! When we got there we had no idea how much fun we were going to have!

The first thing we had to do was drop our luggage off at our rooms. Then we went to the main lobby to be assigned groups. I was in group Capella.  Next, we went to the only full scale model of a space shuttle in the world.  It even had a rocket engine by it. It was then time for bed, the rooms we slept in were giant tubes. The next morning we went to a space museum and the coolest thing we saw was a full scale model of a Saturn V rocket. After that we built model rockets. The next day we blasted them off but some got stuck in trees. 

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was getting to experience the simulators. We did a multi axis trainer also known as M.A.T.  It spins you all around to simulate losing control of your aircraft to see if you can get out of the spin. The next simulator we did was a flight simulator.  It shows you what to do in different scenarios in space so you are not flying without some experience. The last simulator we did was a 4G spinner that astronauts use so they know what to expect in a blastoff.  It felt  like a roller coaster but twice as fast.

I learned a lot of really cool and interesting facts. John Young brought a corned beef sandwich into space. The Hubble Space Telescope needed 3 repair missions after it was launched. The Endeavor was the last orbiter ever built and was made by spare parts from the Discovery and Atlantis. The Discovery has the most missions flown into space. America is the first country and only country to land on the moon.          

The bus ride back was almost as much fun as the ride there. That is the conclusion of my adventure. The two reasons why I would recommend this trip is it is a blast and you learn a lot about space. The second reason is you make a lot of new friends that like the same things as you.