Space Symposium Day 3

Our traveling knight next to a (from left to right) a piece of foam from the external tank of the space shuttle, a piece of metal from the external tank (front), and exploding nut that holds the shuttle to the ground for a few seconds before liftoff, and a space shuttle tile.

Teaching a lesson back to South Valley Middle School from the Space Foundation booth at the National Space Symposium.

Today was a little less hectic than yesterday but it was still pretty amazing. The morning started by watching a big panel discussion between 5 former commanders of the US Space Command. There were 5 generals on stage and one Admiral. They talked about their time in the military and what they accomplished at Space Command. General Ed Eberhart was the commander of NORAD on September 11th. I was hoping to stick around after their talk to get a chance to meet them but I had to get to the exhibit hall to teach the lessons back to South Valley. For today’s lessons I was able to get an actual food tray from the Space Shuttle along with some samples of the food. These were actual samples that were to go up but had expired. I also got a small swatch of space suit material that showed all of the different layers that go into it. And finally, I got a real Apollo era space suit glove. The first lesson I taught while over in a corner of the convention hall. The second lesson I got permission to actually sit at the Space Foundation booth. There were probably over 100 people that walked by as I taught including generals and probably some astronauts. After teaching the two lessons, I had to drive to Denver to take my wife to the airport. She will be back in Kansas City at 9:45 tonight. On the way back from Denver I drove through a pretty good snow storm. There is more snow predicted for later in the week. I’m hoping that our field trip on Friday to NOAA doesn’t get cancelled.

Oh, and one more thing from today, I saw Bill Nye, the Science Guy, walking around the exhibit hall. He looks just like he does on TV. I’m hoping to get a picture with him tomorrow.