The Space Center's New Summer Missions are Announced!

Skyler and Emily's killer hound "Safari" patrolled the school's hallways
during our meeting. Always on the hunt for KAOS agents.
She is trained to bite and ask questions later.
"Who's a good dog then?"

Monday, January 16. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A School Holiday.

The Space Center's staff of dedicated Set and Flight Directors arrived at the Space Center this holiday Monday morning under the ruse of having to do court directed public service hours for delinquency. On my direction they had their shoes untied, hair messed up, heavy dark facial make up (for females), low riding jeans (for males), and all smacking chewing gum to give the impression to any KAOS spy lurking in the trees and bushes that nothing of importance was happening at the Space Center. Once in the building the staff's anti social costumes were exchanged for proper student attire.

Why the deception? We didn't want our advisories to know today was the day we approved our summer schedule and either wrote or reviewed our summer camp stories for the summer camp season of 2012.

9:00 A.M.
Meeting with the Phoenix staff and the Programming Guild. There was a discussion concerning new Phoenix Cocoa controls.

10:00 A.M.
Breakfast meeting.
Delicious donuts, bagels, orange juice, milk and chocolate milk were on hand to get everyone's brains ready for the schedule presentation. We bid farewell to Alex Anderson who is leaving for an LDS mission on Wednesday. The applause for Alex's years of dedicated work was heart felt. Tissues were on hand for those who needed them. Counsellors waited in the room next to Discovery for anyone who needed psychiatric help to overcome the Alex addiction (over dependency on his unique computer skills necessary to keep our ships running).

Alex will be missed.

After Alex's tribute the meeting turned to the new summer missions. All five simulators need new missions for the summer. Today was the day for them to be written or revised. Just before I brought the writing sessions to order a sound was heard on the school's roof. Jon and Miranda were dispatched to investigate. Both stopped at the Magellan's armory to don vests and phasers. I feared the possibility that KAOS agents might be hovering over the rooftop air conditioner listening in, waiting to steal our intellectual property for their organization's diabolical purposes.

"Just the wind of an approaching storm," Jon reported. We stood down from Red Alert.

"Break into your teams, write or revise your new Summer stories and meet me again for lunch at Noon," I directed.

I met with my Voyager team consisting of Emily and Jon. We discussed several cool and innovated concepts we'd like to introduce in our Voyager mission; I'm not at liberty to discuss them in this open forum for reason's given in the paragraphs above.
Ideas flowed. Opinions were given. A decision was reached.

I left Emily and Jon to make copies of the mission while I jumped into the Battlestar to collect lunch from Little Caesars.

"Six of your delicious, mouth watering pizzas please," I asked the cashier. She smiled. I noticed she had gold fillings on her back teeth. Curious an American would have gold fillings. Gold fillings were more an East European practice.

"Spasibo," she replied. At that moment she knew she'd blown her cover. She had just used the Russian word for Thank you.

"You mean 'thank you' don't you?" I replied reaching for the phaser I always keep strapped to my ankle. She jumped over the counter, pushed me to the floor and escaped into the windy wintry morning. I felt obliged to pursue but stopped when I heard a banging sound. The KAOS agent had the store manager and cashier tied up in the walk in cooler.

12:00 Noon
Lunch was served in Discovery. While the staff feasted on pizza, chips and a delicious assortment of beverages (Sprite, Root Beer and Diet Coke) each simulator made a short presentation outlining their new summer story. The excitement in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife.

12:30 P.M.
The official meeting ended. The staff had the option to stay and continue to work on their own time or leave. Most stayed, realizing that once the creative juices start to flow, stopping them abruptly could be dangerous - leading to dementia, dizziness and slurred speech.

Nicole and Zac reviewing the Magellan's new summer story
Stolen Honor (Working Title)

Megan, Wyatt and Miranda reviewing the Phoenix's new summer story
Rules of Succession


Christine, Adam, Devin and Josh reviewing the Odyssey's new summer story
Star Crossed

Matt, Ben, Rachel and Stacy reviewing the Galileo's new summer story
The Galileo Incident (Working Title)

Stacy hiding her computer screen from my camera. The Galileo staff are very protective of their work. Our staff share a competitive streak - each working hard to outdo the other in the summer camp ratings.

Emily and Jon reviewing background information on the
Voyager's new summer story
The Hunt for Horace

Your Space News Updates.

Space Junk News - The Fall of Phobos-Grunt

Phobos-Grunt in assembly phase.

It's the end of another sad tale of Russia's attempts to investigate the planet Mars. Phobos-Grunt was launched on November 9, 2011 on a mission to explore Mars' moon Phobos and bring back samples to Earth. Instead, rocket failures on the probe left it in a perilous orbit around the Earth. Repeated attempts to correct the problem from Russian mission control were useless.

The orbit of Phobos-Grunt was unstable. Scientists hurried to predict where the probe would eventually crash back to Earth. Last night the answer was discovered as the craft entered the atmosphere and crashed to the surface somewhere in the Southern Pacific, about 1200 kilometers from Wellington Island. Chile is the owner of the island. No reports of the crash or any damage have been reported. There were worries that the toxic fuels on board the probe and some of the heavier instruments would survive enough of the burn-up to pose a threat to anyone near the crash site.

According to NASA records, this is the most recent of 17 failures by the Russians to explore Mars. They seem to have better success probing Venus. I think Mars hates them. Actually, it just shows how incredibly complicated and difficult it really is to send probes to other planets. We often take these explorations for granted.

ISS during Expedition 27. That's shuttle Endeavor docked at the top.

Meanwhile, up in space the ISS crew performed a maneuver to change the station's orbit slightly. They had two good reasons. Firstly, they needed to prepare for an upcoming rendezvous with a supply craft delivery of cargo. Second, and of slightly more urgency, they needed to dodge some junk.

Back in 2009, one of the Iridium satellites collided with a derelict Russian satellite. The resulting fragments scattered around the Earth. This particular fragment, about the size of a grapefruit, would pass uncomfortably close to the ISS. By performing the rendezvous maneuver now, the ISS has completely dodged the space junk.

Brother Alex Departs for Penn's Land. Another Troubadour Leaves the Troope.

Brother Alex Goes Forth to Serve.

The nun's chorus echoed throughout the chapel. All rose from bended knee and prayer. Master Alex, now Brother Alex, had donned the robes of the monk and pilgrim. He turned from the alter to face the congregation; and with the Bishop's blessing, walked from the alter toward the heavy oak doors and into the January day.

Our band of Troubadours gathered around the ox cart to bid our fellow Troubadour a final adieu. Brother Alex warmly shook each hand and offered words of encouragement and comfort.

"You shall do fine. My parting may be noticed, but only momentarily, like a feather drifting to the Earth. Master Matthew was an able disciple and I trust you in his great care." Brother Alex put his hand on Master Matthew's shoulder as if bestowing his powers upon him.

Master Matthew spoke. "I shall do my best to fill your place, but may I speak for all and repeat that you will be missed."

"Then that sorrow in departure is a testament to the friends and good fellows I leave behind. And now I must bid adieu. It is a long journey to Penn's Land and there is much work to do." Alex jumped into the cart. His brown woolen robes looked odd and uncomfortable upon his body. He sat in the straw, and with cross in hand, offered a friar's blessing to his fellow Troubadours.

"A final gift to you," I stepping from the gathering when his blessing was complete and placed a parchment into his hand. "May this prayer keep you in His care when the days are at their darkest. Be safe Brother, for the world outside these gates can be as dangerous as they are marvelous."

"I shall. And now Goodbye." Brother Alex tapped the shoulder of the carts man. The cart lurched forward, it's wheels rattled on the cobblestone as it turned and then disappeared through the castle's gate. Brother Alex unrolled the parchment and read.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

Sir Francis Drake (1577)

Brother Alex rolled the parchment and carefully put it into his knapsack. He stretched out upon the straw and looked into the deep blue of God's sky.

"There be a blanket beneath the staw if needed Brother," the carts man said as he shifted his weight on the bench. It would be a long trek to the river.

"I thank you, but the day is warm." There was a pause. Brother Alex sat up and watched a group of children playing near a grouping of thatched huts beside the road. He remembered his time on stage bringing story and music to hundreds of children like them from one of the of the Kingdom to the other.

"It is a good day for a journey, is it not?" Brother Alex spoke with contentment.

"That it is Brother. That it is," the cartsman replied.

On Wednesday, Alex Anderson enters the MTC in Provo to train to serve as an LDS missionary in Pennsylvania. Alex started at the Space Center as a young teenager, following in his older brother's footsteps. He quickly found his niche in the Programming Guild. From there he ventured into Flight Director. He became the Phoenix Set Director when Megan Warner left to serve an LDS mission in South Korea.

Alex's handiwork can be found on the computer screens in the Magellan, Phoenix, Galileo and Odyssey. He was a dedicated and devoted member of our staff. We all wish him the best as he serves his church on this two year mission.

Mr. W. and the rest of "The Troubadours".