Wow – this was an amazing event! Thanks to Eitan I was on stage!

For all the people following this blog – apply to the Sally Ride EarthKAM to get a photo from space!

EarthKAM

Congratulations to Gemma Dalton!

Blacktown Sun

Congratulations to everyone. What an incredible group of people. We are all home safe and sound. Thanks to all the participants for making this the best trip ever!

In a few weeks we will send out a newsletter and news about catching up with Greg Chamitoff in January.

Thank you for making this tour such a success.

Thanks to Richmond North for doing this for us:

Home

It is AMAZING!

We have deorbited from Space Camp and I have a USB of photos for all of you to keep as a momento!

Presently it is 11:22 pm and I can see the entrance to Disneyland outside our window.

Up early for a 7 am breakfast and then into Disney by 8 am. We will return here to get our bus at 6 pm to head to LAX to come home.

We skyped with Greg Chamitoff today – http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chamitoff.html

He is a great supporter and personal friend of mine and it was a brilliant end to an excellent time in Space Camp!

Watching the kids on mission.

Really noisy debrief as they excitedly talk to each other…LOL!

Things are very quiet at breakfast this morning. Missions, rocket launching and a huge variety of other things are sapping energy levels – so they are filling up on a good Space Camp breakfast.

The adults had an early breakfast as they are landing on Mars this morning. I am sure there will be photos!

This is the last full day of Space Camp and we graduate tomorrow.

Space Camp is in full swing. They are so busy I cannot grab a single participant to add to the blog! Presently they are fast asleep – it is 11 pm here.

The food is excellent – with apples, bananas and cantaloupes available 24/7.

There is a large selection of food – everyone can choose bowls of cauliflower in white sauce, vegetarian lasagne, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, little bread rolls, chicken, meat, carrots, etc etc etc. No one looks sad at meal times!

I was watching Luna on their mission today – very professional and in control. Communicating well and focussing on the tasks presented.

Not so the adults – where I saw one particular person with a fake hand trying to shake hands with people, another with swimming goggles on trying to do free style on the polished concrete floor and another one had hidden the flight manuals on the pilot and commander. They were very naughty. Luckily the students did not see these shenanigans!

All merchandise has been ordered. Mission patches designed and ordered.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are gift shop days so I will be on hand to give them their money and collect it again.

Every time I see our student participants – I am very proud as they are well mannered, well behaved and trying all tasks set before them.

Three bus loads of students arrived from Birmingham yesterday. 48 elementary students and their teachers. They were saying how their 90 minute bus ride was a nightmare. I told them I could understand this and then handed them 5 packets of koalas to give to their students, one of them asked – how long did it take you to get here? I said – we left on 28th September and arrived on 1st October. All up – 13 hours flying to LAX and then two plane flights of 4:22 and then 57 minutes….They looked at me like “Are you crazy?” and stopped talking about their bad bus trip!

I have encouraged them to talk to their students about saying hi to us by giving them a koala – that way the students need to say “Thank you” to one of our participants. It is an easy way to get the students talking to one another.

Anyway – time for bed. Another fun day awaits tomorrow!

Good night from 1 Tranquility Base, Huntsville (aka Space Camp)