on a cosmic quest at the KSCVC!

Today, I let the 18-year-old come out and play!
No doubt I was inspired to do so by the little blonde girl playing with her shuttle on the bus ride back to the Visitor Complex yesterday. She was having so much fun! Brought a tear to my eye, it did, to think of how very far NASA has come in the sixty years of its existence... and how far society has come that a girl could ask for a shuttle and her parents would buy it for her.
Wow.
Right place, right time.
i thank You, God.

Here's my teenaged self, complete with tiara and long hair (though it was blonder back then and she was half the mass of today's woman).
She has successfully launched the Orion into space - on her third try - and the ship is headed for Mars - hooray!
That maneuver earned her three stars and the designation "Launch Specialist" in Cosmic Quest.
Congratulations, girlie!
That was aWEsoMe!!!


Each time, the challenge booth rattled and white mist (from the water used to keep the rocket cool and the vibrations minimized) shrouded the trainee (that would be her...
I mean, me, lol).
She, nor I, had any idea that would happen!
Really cool that the machine not only took a photo each time, but also displayed to all around what was happening in the chamber. A woman came up after and pointed out the image, still present, on the exterior of the booth. Wow!!!
Now, how did she get the knowledge to launch that rocket?
Well, she had the help of four experts at the Mission Assignment Stations there at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

One woman dealt with fuel types and sent her to four Lab Stations to gather information. Another woman specialized in strengths of engineering materials and sent her to four Lab Stations. A third had his expertise in rocket operations and she was sent to three Lab Stations. And the last one, a cute nerdy guy in glasses, taught her about essential equipment through the use of four Lab Stations.
Whew! That was a lot of walking!

This was her very favorite of the seven
actual Lab Stations -
Mary Sherman Morgan, rocket fuel designer.
Could that woman from North Dakota possibly
have been the real Lula del Ray?
(smile!)
The other Lab Stations were Galileo, Kurt H. Debus, Edwin Hubble, Carl Sagan, Wernher von Braun, and James E. Webb.

Here is her Score Card on her third try
at becoming a Rocket Launch Specialist.
Notice how all three parts are marked "Ideal"?
That's what was needed to attain those three stars!
The questions varied on each try, but she realized
that she needed to make note of which specialist
to ask for help to solve any given question.
Glad she had their advice...
and recognized which ones knew what!
Having earned that first Award, she returned
to the Visitor Complex on the next bus!

Once there, Fliss of Savannah -
her astronaut-in-training name, of course -
headed straight to the Atlantis.
There were four Awards to be earned there
and each mission concerned a task
on the International Space Station!
But this Plant Systems in Space mission ate her lunch...

well, it certainly consumed the time for a meal.
She had thought this would be easy - nope!
She could not call on any experts and
the Lab Stations had not been helpful.
Poor brown-thumbed girl!
She finally made made Specialist and won the Award,
but no stars, not even on her third try at day's end.

She fared better on the Closed Loop System mission,
her third mission.
Again, no experts could be called to her aid, but she managed to figure out how to run the pipes from the carbon dioxide scrubber, the living quarters, the water source, and all that - and she got a star!

That was more like it and just what she needed to urge her on to the Healthy Living In Space Mission.
After completing the lessons on Bone Degradation, Muscle Degradation, and Chemistry Solutions -
plus her own knowledge from more than two decades
of teaching metabolism to college students -
she earned those three stars on her first go!

Then she almost ran to catch the Astronaut Encounter at the Universe Theater! It would be her only chance to hear Jerry Ross, as she had missed the morning talk by ten minutes.
Alas, she missed him this time by only two minutes.
But she understood that rules were rules. Maybe she would catch him at the photo session after his talk... but first, she would try for another Specialist Award over at the Journey To Mars site!

The Temporary Exploration Base mission?
That sounded like the better option of the two missions there... but it required her to visit thirteen Lab Stations!
That ate up more than thirty minutes, all told...
and she still didn't get a star...
and she still missed getting her photo with the astronaut of the day.

She did a crash and burn on the Asteroid Capture Adventure, too, over at the IMAX Theatre.
The ten lessons at the Lab Stations were interesting,
but the Encounter had been moved.
Moreover, it had no directions and was clearly meant
to be played as a video game.
(I gave her the Award just for finding the machine!)

Time for a time-out!
She was running on fumes. It was now after four
and breakfast had been at 9:30.
The G-Force Grill offered a bratwurst covered
with sauerkraut, plus there was mustard...
ahhhh, that really hit the spot!
Plus, it was nice to sit for a spell.

Only two Specialist Awards remained for her
to strive to attain on this third - and final -
day on Cape Canaveral.
Onward, to build the Permanent Space Habitat on Mars!
Well, she certainly gave it a good try,
this time completing all fourteen Lab Station lessons
and making a good start at a dome-centered home.

What else remained and where was it?
The Materials In Space mission, at the Atlantis.
Back she went, hoping for success - and she easily achieved the Award of Specialist and three stars!
Perhaps her eight years as a CTM in the Navy helped?
Oh, they most assuredly did!

At day's end, here is her game badge, with all eight Specialist Awards attached.
Yes, that's right - all eight of them!
She completed the sixty-five lessons, which required walking back and forth among twenty-eight Lab Stations and nineteen Mission Assignment Stations and eight Challenge Encounters - with several of the challenges being performed multiple times.
I am so proud of that girl...
I guess she was listening to the astronaut's advice.
i thank You, God!