I want to be an astronaut when I grow up

CJones

CJones

Final Approach
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Ever since going to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama multiple times in elementary school, I've had a fascination with space 'stuff'.

When I get links to stuff like this, it just rekindles those feelings of awe when walking through the S&R Center (where Space Camp is held). I'll never forget the first ever IMax movie I ever saw - a movie made about the astronaut training program. Everyone nearly flew out of their seats while 'riding along' on the splash-down simulation.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/round_trip_with_endeavour.html

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CJones said:
I'll never forget the first ever IMax movie I ever saw - a movie made about the astronaut training program. Everyone nearly flew out of their seats while 'riding along' on the splash-down simulation.
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Did you see blue planet at one of the domed imax theatres?

The emergency cable car contraption from the tower was great. There was a little teeny net way down at the bottom to run into. Down it went into the net. They really need seatbelts in that theater. I almost threw myself into the lap of the person in front of me as I reacted to going into the HUGE net.

I don't care what anyone says, the shuttle does not glide. It falls like a rock. The camera started just as the shuttle turned final at what looked like around 10,000, maybe 15,000 MSL with a windscreen full of ground and water....then it promptly fell to the runway that was pretty much right below the shuttle. I would have likely made the Bahama's. A heavily loaded B747 with engines out would have ended up in the Atlantic. The shuttle barely made the numbers.
 
fgcason said:
Did you see blue planet at one of the domed imax theatres?

The emergency cable car contraption from the tower was great. There was a little teeny net way down at the bottom to run into. Down it went into the net. They really need seatbelts in that theater. I almost threw myself into the lap of the person in front of me as I reacted to going into the HUGE net.
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That sounds a lot like what we saw. This movie I saw (in the domed IMax theater) would have been in 86-87 time frame.
 
The Space Station imax film brought tears to my eyes.
 
Did you know The Space and Rocket Center also has an aviation camp called Aviation Challenge? (Think Top Gun Camp) its awesome. I worked there for awhile in the advanced program (high school age). I consider it the most rewarding thing I've done in my life. Any time I worry about kids today, I think about some the kids I worked with there and feel a lot better.

http://www.spacecamp.com/details.php?cat=Aviation&program=Mach+III
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Is the movie you saw in this IMAX DVD boxed set?

https://www.familyvideo.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=159643
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I can't remember the name of the movie I saw, as I was in 1st-2nd grade, but I know what to ask for for Christmas now. :)

SNewlin06 said:
Did you know The Space and Rocket Center also has an aviation camp called Aviation Challenge? (Think Top Gun Camp) its awesome. I worked there for awhile in the advanced program (high school age). I consider it the most rewarding thing I've done in my life. Any time I worry about kids today, I think about some the kids I worked with there and feel a lot better.

http://www.spacecamp.com/details.php?cat=Aviation&program=Mach+III
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Wow! I don't think they had that when I was in school.

I was always envious of the kids that were in the big water tank (weightless) 'working' on the Space Station. At one point we even got do to a walk-through tour of the Space Station mock-up out at Red Stone or Marshall (can't remember which it was, now). And riding around in those smelly drab green tour buses. Man I miss it!! :)
 
SNewlin06 said:
Did you know The Space and Rocket Center also has an aviation camp called Aviation Challenge?
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When I did the one-week adult space camp a few years back (with my buddy Blake, for his 40th birthday) we had one day turned loose in Aviation Challenge. The flight simulators were neat...basically just MSFS, but they had very nice fighter cockpits and projected the outside view on a screen about ten feet across.

They also had a centrifuge that would let you pull up to ~4 Gs. It was a two-person side-by-side arrangement. They had a "Chicken Switch" for each seat... a light would come on, and if both occupants hadn't hit their switches within N seconds, the centrifuge would shut down and that would be the end of the ride. Neither me or Blake wanted to let the other guy think he was chickening out, so it was always a race to see who would hit their switch first....

I wrote about my Space Camp experiences in an Avweb Article. That's me on the left in the final picture, and on the brain scrambler just before it.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Those brain scrambler contraptions are awesome. I'd like to have one.
 
CJones said:
That sounds a lot like what we saw. This movie I saw (in the domed IMax theater) would have been in 86-87 time frame.
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That's very likely the same show. Same time period.
 
wanttaja said:
When I did the one-week adult space camp a few years back (with my buddy Blake, for his 40th birthday) we had one day turned loose in Aviation Challenge. The flight simulators were neat...basically just MSFS, but they had very nice fighter cockpits and projected the outside view on a screen about ten feet across.

They also had a centrifuge that would let you pull up to ~4 Gs. It was a two-person side-by-side arrangement. They had a "Chicken Switch" for each seat... a light would come on, and if both occupants hadn't hit their switches within N seconds, the centrifuge would shut down and that would be the end of the ride. Neither me or Blake wanted to let the other guy think he was chickening out, so it was always a race to see who would hit their switch first....

I wrote about my Space Camp experiences in an Avweb Article. That's me on the left in the final picture, and on the brain scrambler just before it.

Ron Wanttaja
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Good article. Good place. I miss it some times. If I could afford to still work there, I probably would. Aviation Challenge is similarly good. I used to love teaching the aerodynamics section to high school kids. If you did it right, you could really see the light bulbs switch on. The land and water survival stuff is really good too. Where else can you throw kids off a 4 story tower (legally) :yikes:
 
Space camp is one of my best memories. I overcame fears and had a lot of fun... I have always been scared of hights and roller coasters and there was this ball in a tube that we got an opertunity to ride in, when it dropped you experianced weigtlessness. It freaked me out to no end, but I thought if I wanted to do this when I grew up, I needed to get over it. So I climed in and had gum in my mouth. The counsler made me spit it out in his hand because he saw how anxious I was and he was afraid I was going to choke on it.

I also got my first "real" kiss there.:blowingkisses:
 
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How many of us watched this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091993/ and thought "Oh man.. They're so lucky!!!"

I haven't seen it in years, so I'm sure it's chock full of horrible inaccuracies, but I loved it at the time.
 
I forget which IMAX film on the shuttle it was (might have been Blue Planet), but one has a sequence on the Solar Max recovery mission. Nice to see images of a project that I worked on (a long time ago - I left Martin Marietta 25 years ago).

Neat stuff.
 
CJones said:
How many of us watched this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091993/ and thought "Oh man.. They're so lucky!!!"

I haven't seen it in years, so I'm sure it's chock full of horrible inaccuracies, but I loved it at the time.
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Right after I saw the movie, I started saving... went the next summer. :smilewinkgrin:

Movie not totally accurate but it was still WAY TOO COOL.
 
flyersfan31 said:
Inaccuracies? Was it about space? I pretty much watched Lea Thompson, didn't really care about the movie.:smilewinkgrin:
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You and a few other folks. I wonder if I could fly into space camp like she did? And in a cool biplane, to boot.
 
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