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Thursday, February 14, 2008 Today was somewhat of a bittersweet day-it was bittersweet because I'm excited that we completed this entire process as a team, and because I'm proud of everyone. However, it's sad because we've made a lot of memories in the past ten days. I've met some pretty amazing people at NASA, and some pretty amazing teachers! We started this morning with a tour of Mission Control Houston. On our second day, we caught a glimpse of the doors, however, it's not the same as actually going inside! We watched as the controllers worked extremely hard to ensure the astronauts at the ISS are safe. Our speaker, Norman, told us that these controllers work in shifts of nine hours at a time. They cannot leave their desk for any reason, unless they need to use the restroom. They have to make sure they do not miss anything! It was so neat seeing the huge screens with everything on them! We were also taken to the Apollo Mission Control, too! We actually were allowed to sit in this room as if we were controllers! This was cool! I pretended that I was the lead controller for a brief moment! You're never too old! :) You know when you go to the bank and you send your money in those tubes? This is how the controllers talked to one another in the Apollo room-this was their form of e-mail I guess you could call it. After this tour, we went to the chambers! The chambers cannot simulate space as far as floating, but they can simulate the environment so certain products can be tested for safety. There are two chambers: Chamber A and Chamber B. Chamber A is much, much, much bigger than B. It was so cool because they opened Chamber A as we were standing there! Our tour guide said that they've never done that before! Chamber A was about 90 feet tall, by 55 feet wide! When they utilize this chamber, it costs them approximately $500,000.00 for every five days! That's not pocket change! The tour guide also said that that dollar amount is probably irrelevant now with gas prices being so high! Yikes! We then went back to Ellington Field for our status check-out. As we were making sure we had everything complete, Dominic brought us into this room where two pilots were getting suited up for a small mission. These two pilots were going to be flying in the B-57 aircraft for some functional testing. This aircraft can fly so far that the Earth's curvature is visible! It's amazing-one of the mechanics gave us some pictures to take back with us! These pilots were actually in astronaut suits! After they were suited up, they boarded the two-seater plane, and prepared for take-off. We were allowed on the runway to actually watch this! It was so cool! We were completely enthralled in this, that we almost missed our last tour! However, we made it in time! Our last tour was of the International Space Station! It is unreal how huge the ISS actually is! I found out that the astronauts work in a completely separate facility than their "home." To be honest, I didn't know they had a "home" while they were there. I'm still learning! They do a lot of community building before they are sent on a mission because as the tour guide said, they may not have a problem with one another here, but when you get into such close encounters-you're going to hate the way someone combs their hair eventually! Since they are so busy during the day, they always have one meal together at 3:00. This is the opportunity to not "space talk," but rather the chance for them to ask questions about families, hobbies, etc. One thing that made me sad as I was walking through there was the Challenger Mission. The Challenger Mission is the mission that blew up. I bought a memorial pin with all of the astronauts names engraved-it's very moving. We found out from our speaker, Tom Hanson, that there was one person that could have saved that entire mission, but never spoke up. I guess the ISS made me think about a lot of things, and what the astronauts really go through while they are up there. This tour ended our educational and life changing experience down in Houston, Texas. I am forever grateful to the wonderful NASA employees, my students, my team, my family, Ms. Carty and Dr. Lindquist for allowing us this once in a lifetime opportunity! Thank you! Sincerely, Ms. Pengra
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