Day 6

Day 6

Day six of the 2013 Leeming USA space camp, was a day of transition. It started off in a luxury hotel in Arlington, and by the end of the day we were in bunk beds in confined rooms in Huntsville at the space camp facility, which would be our home for the next week. The day started off in quite luxurious fashion, as we enjoyed the last of our three world class breakfasts at the Hilton in Arlington. Our awesome leader, Mr Roberts then set us on our way, as he informed us of the daily announcements, and enlightened us on the day’s schedule. After cleaning ourselves up, and getting our possessions in order, we were met at the front of the hotel by the coach that would take us to Baltimore Airport.

We were informed that we were an hour late arriving and we may struggle to board on time. After rushing through check-in and security and running through the terminal we managed to board with 3 minutes to spare. A short one and a half hour flight took us to the busiest airport in the world in Atlanta.  We were soon to know, after we arrived at Atlanta airport, that the next flight had been delayed for an hour and 15 minutes. Within the duration of this period, most of us stocked up on junk food for the week ahead. After the delays finally came to an end, we boarded our flight bound for Huntsville, Alabama which would be the site where we would partake in the space camp program. When we arrived, we collected our luggage and was met by the shuttle bus which then took us to space camp. Prior to arrival, some of us had some preconceptions about the conditions of the campsite. These presumptions were soon put to rest, as we became orientated with the logistics of the campsite, and settled into our dormitories.

As we entered into the evening hours, we had dinner, and then we had our first introductory course of the space camp. We had three information sessions-Mission roles, Parts of the Shuttle and its propulsion systems and Abort procedures.  Following this introduction, the lecturer took us outside and demonstrated practically on a smaller scale about what he had been teaching us; there were three types of fuels the instructor explained, solid rocket fuel, liquid rocket fuel and hypergollic fuel. After this, we learnt more about the mechanics and processes of the spaceship. We were enlightened about the several procedures that may take place in the case of an emergency. We learnt about several different abort techniques such as ATO, RTLS and ECAL.  ATO is Abort-To-Orbit, RTLS is Return-To-Launch-Site and ECAL is East-Coast-Abort-Landing. We were then issued with a Space Camp T-shirt and our Flight Suits.  After all this we prepared ourselves for our first night here at the campsite, and then soon enough it was lights out. In conclusion, day six was a day of transition and travel, and a day of conformity as we tried to change our mindsets from that of a luxurious hotel, to that of a regimented campsite.

By Michael and Sam.