Today I’m an Editor

Ever since our family visited the NASA Space Center last month, my son has been working on a paper. Well, it started off as just a report on what he learned. I thought this would be a great way to share with his teachers that his two days away from school were still educational.

After a number of weeks (in between piano lessons, homework and a bout with the flu), he’s turned over his first draft of this report. And to my delight, it’s a four-chapter novella! I am combing through this draft to help clean things up a bit before he recopies it (more legibly I hope) to its final form.

I’m so pleased with the story. I’ll set it up for you in hopes of sharing with y’all in future posts. Essentially, it tells the story of a dog who wanders out on his own to explore the NASA grounds. He sets out to visit Mission Control, Rocket Park, the Neutral Buoyancy Lab and the Visitor’s Center. Along the way, he meets up with a number of curious friends and learns a lot about the space program.

I can’t wait to share more (provided the author grants permission to publish).

Today I’m a Believer

I just spent the afternoon at the NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas. I reconnected with a friend from my hometown who works there and he hooked up the whole family with a private tour. After seeing the beauty of historic mission control, the enormity of the Saturn V rockets, the genius behind the International Space Station and the extreme strategy that goes into each and every shuttle mission, I am in awe. This tour made everything seem so real.

I know there are a lot of questions around the validity of our first moon landing… or any moon landing for that matter. And I’m not interested in a debate, but I love the fact that so many men and women have dedicated their careers and lives to furthering space exploration. The many years of training that go into preparing for a two-week shuttle mission astounds me.

We were all fascinated with the complexity of the space station and blown away with the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. If you ever get the chance to see this, it’s a must. Over 200 feet long, 100 feet wide and 40 feet deep this ginormous swimming pool allows astronauts to train for space walks in a weightless environment. Although, no astronauts were training at the time, the elements of the space station were all very visible from the observation deck.

Hats off to Michael for a wonderful afternoon and memorable family trip. And although we saw a lot today, we still didn’t have time for the Visitor’s Center. We might just have to make another visit tomorrow.