Yesterday, the Odyssey II flew A Cry from the Dark as its first test mission for students from Central Elementary School. The staff were crying in the dark because of all the glitches, which is to be expected whenever you bring a new simulator online. Today the Odyssey II flew its second shakedown mission for cadets from our Farpoint Club. The Troubadour was there to cover the monumental event.
And now for something completely random, a message from our sponsor - Dirty Coke.
I needed to take care of a few things for the house before going to the Space Center to immortalize the mission. I went to the RC Willy Outlet and bought a new refrigerator and dishwasher. My 25 year old fridge is showing its age. The compressor makes a loud CLUNK after every cooling cycle. The CLUNK can be alarming when heard in the middle of the night.
Parting with any amount of money usually puts me in a foul mood, so I bought a Dirty Coke on the way home to feel better. My sister told me about Dirty Cokes, but not being one to mess around with tradition, I've ignored her testimonials and remained faithful to my usual - a Diet Dew with one squirt of cherry. However, Today was different. Today needed something special to celebrate the acquisition of two new appliances.
Dirty Coke Recipe.
32 ounce cup
Fill with Diet Coke
Add one standard squirt of coconut
then
Add one standard squirt of lime
Carefully shaken, not stirred
and served in a sea of ice.
Delicious......
End of random randomness
Now to the story at hand - the Odyssey II's second test mission with Farpoint Cadets in photos.
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| Connor L and Space Center Director Megan Warner. The smiles were for me. I asked for them and they delivered. Given a choice, there would have been scowls as a result of the way they were being treated by the Odyssey II. |
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| Farpoint Cadets training to fly the new Odyssey |
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| Brandon is trained and ready for blast off, or warp speed. |
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| A panoramic view of the Odyssey's Bridge |
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| Another panoramic shot with the back stations in view (you know the ones where they can't see the front of the ship because the desks are too high). |
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| A Cadet prepping for the mission |
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| The sensors station. The Odyssey II is using the original Odyssey's controls. |
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| The captain's private runway, showing the way to his escape pod in case of self destruct or ship evacuation |
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| Adam and Hailey staffing the test mission |
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| Problems again at the back stations. |
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| Chase and Adam relaxing in the Phoenix as they wait for Odyssey training to finish. The Phoenix can be used as the Odyssey's engineering section if needed. The two simulators are across a narrow hallway from each other. |
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| I took this picture of Nathan running a Galileo mission while I waited for the Odyssey mission to start. |
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| Staff member Jordan in time out. Bless his heart, he tries so hard. |
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| Finally, the mission begins. Present in the control room: Connor L., Adam., Chase K., Megan W., and Hailey W. |
The Imaginarium
Just because we can. Put the extraordinary in, take the extraordinary out, put the extraordinary in and shake it all about. We do the hookey pookie and...... well, you get the picture.......
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| Amazing realism |
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| The Ice Palace from Inception |
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| Something to do with an unwanted tree |
