Space Camp to Houston, Do you Read Me?
By Emma Smith
“Emma, come over here!” my mom called. “I want to talk to you about something.”
“Coming!!” I called back. As I go over to my mom, I see a sign-up sheet for a Space Camp. “Can I go?” I ask.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” she responded. “There’s only one thing, it’s in Texas.”
“Oh.”
Fast forward ten weeks, and we’re packed up and on a four-hour plane to Houston for the space camp. Getting off the plane, the hot air blasts me in the face.
“Is it always going to be this hot?” I asked my mom.
“Yeah, it is.”
The next day I was woken up by an alarm at 7:00 Houston time. (5:00 Pacific time) “Uggggggggg! Too early in the morning!” I groaned. Muttering, “I know we have to get up this early to get to camp on time and still get breakfast, but still, ugg.” I groggily go to the kitchen where my mom is already up. By the time I had eaten breakfast, it was already 7:20. Time to go!
After the short drive to Space Center Houston, I was excited. “SPACE CAMP!” I was enthused “I CAN’T WAIT!!!” As soon as I stepped out of the car, however, I had a different thought, “How is it so hot already!” Inside the museum were model rovers and capsules, every space lover's dream. VR simulators, Mars-themed areas, and a giant moon globe!!! I was over the moon. As I was looking around, someone came up to me.
“Hi, I’m Paloma. What’s your name?” said a girl, apparently Paloma.
“I’m Emma. Nice to meet you!”
“Hi, Emma! Meet Jordan.”
“That's me!!” another girl said.
“I think we’re going now!” I said.
Our guide/teacher whose name was Brindis showed us over to the giant theater where we got our orientation from the camp leader. Around 45 kids piled into the auditorium.
“This week at camp is going to be very exciting! We’re going to have an astronaut guest speaker, launch rockets, and many other fun competitions,” the camp leader said. I zoned out for the rest of the talk, only focusing back when I heard, “Well with that! Let's start the tour.”
By tour, they meant spending an hour driving around on a golf cart train, sometimes in the sun, sometimes in the shade, and all of the time, hot. There were some upsides to the tour. One was that I got to see many retired rockets and another was that I made some friends. Nevertheless, I was happy when we got to go back to the air conditioning.
“How hot is it outside?” I inquired.
“96 degrees, hot isn’t it?” Our teacher, Miss Brindis replied. Gathering everyone into a group, Miss Brindis led us over to our classroom. In the classroom, we learned what our group names were. I was delighted to learn that I was with Paloma and Jordan on team GRAIL. Right away, we started working on building a model rocket. We had to make a budget so we had to buy different things for a rocket. Our budget had to last all week, so we had to be careful about what we got with it. Build, build, build at last our rocket came together. WE had opted for no stickers and our rocket was, admittedly plain.
“We're going to be launching the rockets tomorrow, and we're going to assess you on many different things,” Miss Brindis told us. “However, today, we're going to finish with one of the tours.” After giving us the tour, Miss Brindis led us to the dismissal area which, I might add, was in the hot sun and you just sat down. It was infront of a classroom and out of the way of museum parking. My mom came to pick me up relatively soon though so I wasn't complaining.
I was hungry, so we went and got dinner and then went back to our hotel. At the hotel, we quickly ate dinner, then went to an ice cream place and got some delicious sorbet. The next day at camp, early in the morning, we launched the rockets. Team Apollo went first. Whoosh! the parachute deployed. The rocket drifted to the ground. Three more teams went with the same results.
“Team Grail!” someone called. Alright, it was our turn.
The class counted “Three, two, one!” Whahawhooosh the rocket launched, peaking at 72 ft off the ground. Bam! The payload deployed. Whoosh. That was the parachute. Soon after, three other teams launched. Eventually, it was time to return to our “oasis,” our classroom. Getting another Gatorade, I sat down in my seat.
“What was the project today?” I wondered. Soon I learned that before we learned our next project, we were going to learn who won the rocket launch.
“The winners of the rocket launch are. . . . . . . .” Miss Briyndis exclamined, “Team GRAIL! Great job with your rocket!”
“Hooray!” someone called
“Good job,” said someone else.
The next few days flew by. Habitat builds, robotics, the week bussled by. All of a sudden, it was Friday, which meant one thing; one last tour and the graduation. To start was the tour, going into a Boeing aircraft carrier for the space shuttle. After that tour, we went up to the floor to see the shuttle.
“Cooooool,” I marveled. “Did this one go to space?” Turning around I saw that no one was there! “Did they leave me?” I wondered, “or are they just in a different part of the shuttle.” They were in a different part of the shuttle, as it turned out.
Next, we went to the graduation. To my surprise, there was a retired astronaut there! His name was Nick Hague. After he talked about his time in space, he opened it up to questions.
“How long have you been in space?” Paloma asked.
“I’ve been in space for 202 days and 15 hours,” he replied. After some more questions, it was time for the real graduation ceremony to start.
Our camp leader called a team up to the stage. “Team Apollo, come on up.” After getting their certificates, Team Apollo moved back across the stage and back to their seats. “Next up, Team Gemini.” Team Gemini came to the stage, got their diplomas, and sat down. After all the teams had gone, it was time for the medal ceremony. My team didn’t get any medals. After a quick stop in the gift shop on the way out, my mom and I drove to the airport to fly out.
Even though I didn’t get a medal or win many things, I made some friends and had a good time. In the end, that’s what matters.
Emma to space camp, we’re leaving Houston. Over.
