Another Post on Space Center History.

Hello Troops,
This post was written by David Andrus, a former Space Cadet and Volunteer at the Space Center (not to mention an all around good guy). Thank you David for taking the time to write another chapter in the Center's history.

And Now David's Post:

A call for old timers' posts? You sure you want to do that Vic? I'm one of the oldest of the old and I was hoping to save some of this for free private mission blackmail or something.

How about a recollection from my first ever trip to the space center? I think the trip was in 5th grade. That would have been either late 1990 or early 1991. The trip was organized by Fred Olson who was teaching at Sunset View Elementary in Provo at the time. I didn't know exactly what it was before I arrived at Central Elementary, just that it was some sort of space camp.

I remember first coming into the briefing room and sitting down at a desk. There was some sort of mission briefing by a guy who looked suspiciously like the current space center director...but there was just a little bit less of him and his hair was a different color (sorry Vic, I couldn't resist).

I sat there in the briefing room and looked around. The thing that really caught my attention was this rather strange door. It was lower than normal and there were some letters above it. I can't remember what they said now, but they were an abbreviation for something. I was completely clueless about what those letters meant and what was beyond that door, but boy did I ever want to know (and boy was I disappointed to learn the reason for the door being so short - there's a beam or something there that couldn't be moved to accommodate the Voyager).

I recall being taken on board the ship via the transporter on the stage, and then taking the scenic route through the control room on my way to the bridge. I took my station, which was in the same position as the current sensors station, at right wing. We handled propulsion, transporters, and a few other things I can't remember now. I also remember that all of our computers were identical and we had to click on our actions all at the same time.

Ah those old Mac classics were things of beauty. Slow, plodding, tiny black and white screens. But the technical limitations weren't important. The important part was how I was drawn into the story by feeling like I was a part of the action. We'd make a change to the ship's speed and the viewscreen and sound effects would change to reflect that we'd gone from sub-light to warp. We followed our captain's orders and actually managed to make it through without dying once.

I could go on and on about my various experiences at the space center. Maybe some day I'll collect all of my thoughts and send them on. But my continued ramblings will have to wait for another day as I'm sure I've exceeded even the attention span of our illustrious leader. Maybe I'll next regale you all with the story of how the illustrious Fish and I met and started a friendship that is now over 18 years strong.

No Bucks, No Buck Rogers. Until now.

Congress Takes Action on Space Funding
By Mark Daymont
Space Center Educator / Flight Director

It has taken over a year. When President Obama unveiled his plans for NASA's new direction, it set off a firestorm of complaints, praise, arguments and confusion. For many space enthusiasts, it seemed he was deliberately shutting down our only actual plans for continuing human spaceflight and surrendering our lead in space exploration to other countries. To other advocates, his plan seemed to put NASA on a flexible path to developing the new technologies we would use in the future. To be honest, it was a bit of both. The problem was, his plan definitely would have resulted in a longer "space gap" where the US did not have it's own ability to launch humans in space, and worse, there would have been a greater number of layoffs for specialists and engineers from the program.

Late last night, just as Congress prepared to adjourn so they could return home to campaign before the November election, they finally voted on and passed Senate Bill S.3729. This last vote now sends the bill to the President's desk for his signature. Once that is done, the Bill passes into law and the provisions therein become enacted. The money will begin to flow. The actions will be taken, the direction assured.

Many members of congress were not satisfied with the Bill. Many felt it was a poor compromise of the many, many ideas that had been bantered around, argued over and revised time after time. But most felt the time was right to do SOMETHING, and get NASA moving in a direction that felt better than what the White House was choosing. The final vote was 304 for passage, 118 against, with 10 not voting.

The Bill funds one more launch of the shuttle after two that are currently scheduled. It also anticipates helping the private sector develop commercial launchers to put astronauts and other payloads into orbit.

Funding also would go for starting to develop a new heavy launcher, which would be crucial for sending Astronauts to an asteroid of Mars, but also the International Space Station.

Seven billion dollars have been earmarked for work aimed at making the new heavy launcher operational by 2016.

Climbing to New Heights

Hello Troops,
No way, not for a million dollars or all the tea in China would you get me to do this. This gives "Reaching New Heights" an all new meaning. Watch and hold on tightly. I hope these guys are paid well for what they do.

Mr. W.

Tower video

A climb up the tallest tower @ Yahoo! Video