Space Camp

Every two years, Stuart-Hobson Middle School takes a crew of 80 or so sixth and seventh graders down to Huntsville, AL to participate in Space Camp. When the trip this year was announced, Owen was a bit reluctant and stated that since the slots were limited, he felt someone more into space should go in lieu of him. Now normally, we like to give our kids agency and respect their wishes and views. But this was Space Camp, and by God, Owen was going to go.

I think in the end he was glad we coerced him.

I'm not sure he was that excited as he got on one of two busses at 10 pm on a Sunday night in order to drive 14 hours to Alabama (I think it was closer to 15 since one of the busses got a flat tire), but once he actually made it to Camp, his enthusiasm began to grow.

Owen ended up in the Expedition Betelgeuse group. Their mission was to get astronauts Ronan and Anastasia to space in order to do a space walk. Owen's job was with mission command where he even got to lead the countdown. However, all was not well as the mission had to be delayed 8 minutes because the pilot was struggling to fix some problem. Hayden, the flight directed, made the executive decision to skip to where the clock was rather than make up for loss time which led to some confusion (and some missed cues in the script). Fortunately, Ronan and Anastasia made it back with the rest of the team, though oddly enough, the scientists returned before the ship theoretically landed. Something about the time-space continuum (or part of that confusion alluded to above).

In addition to the mission, there was plenty of time to train, get fingerprinted, eat, visit the exhibits and even shop. Owen's personal favorite activities while there were the G-Force Ride, the Space Shot, and the take-off and landing simulator (which his friend, Ronan captured, along with his thumb, in slow motion).

They left Wednesday afternoon (which turned out to be a snow day in DC) right aftergraduation and eventually made it home around five on Thursday morning. That meant, according to DCPS policy, Owen was excused and didn't have to go to school until Friday -- the last day before Spring Break.

In the end, he had a great time and amazing experience. And it's pretty impressive to make it to space and back and only miss three days of classes...

(To see all the pictures, please click here.)