Honors Night at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. January 13, 2022
Honor's Night was held on Thursday, January 13 at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. Honors Night is the Space Center's way of celebrating the accomplishments of its staff and volunteers.
Tabitha Ricks welcomed everyone to Honors Night. Tabitha is the Space Center's volunteer coordinator. The first to be mentioned were the Center's newest volunteers.
Kayden, Mitch and Rylan were honored for getting their Galileo pass.
Cecily and Mitch were honored for getting their Odyssey pass.
Natalie Anderson presented the pins and took great pride in presenting them to the congregation.
Aaron, Mitch, and Henson were presented their Magellan pins for completing the requirements to get the Magellan pass. Connor Larsen in the Magellan's Set Director. He attended the meeting remotely from North Carolina.
The newest members of the Apprentice Guild received their patches for volunteering 500 hours.
Jackson received his Hitchhiker patch for volunteering 1000 hours.
Tyler joined the ranks of Journeyman by surviving 5 years at the Space Center
Audrey Henriksen receiving praise from Mr. Porter
Two ancient souls joined the Time Lords at Honor's Night: Scott Wiltbank and Audrey Henriksen
Matt Ricks was honored for his ten years of service at the Space Center. Matt and Tabitha met at the Space Center and married. They are expecting their first child in February. Matt works as a computer programmer for a day job, which pays him enough so he can continue to volunteer his time and talents at the Space Center as the Engineering Guild Master and Planetarium Navigator. You can never say enough good about Matt Ricks. He is an old soul who is on his last incarnation in this mortal form. I'm grateful for all the help he has given me over the last 10 years. He is a friend to all.
Emma and Cecily were both welcomed as new members of staff. Emma works as a planetarium navigator. Cecily works as a Magellan supervisor and is training to become a flight director
Katie Young will be retiring from space service soon. She is an Odyssey flight director and Cassini supervisor. Mr. Porter presented Katie with her space pillowcase as a retirement gift.
Mr. Porter was happy to present Tyler and Wes with their Flight Director Blues. Both are newly minted Magellan Flight Directors. They are official now and no longer have to wear their Supervisor Blues when they fly the Magellan.
Jon Parker with Micah Clegg
And finally, an old face from the past has returned to the Space Center family. Micah Clegg is the son of Aleta Clegg and grew up at the Space Center working beside his mom. Micah has returned to space service and made his first Honors Night appearance in many years. I caught Micah and Jon after Honors Night sharing memories of the good old days.
There was another new honor given at Honors Night that I won't mention here. The Honor, and the recipient, will be highlighted in next week's Troubadour.
Mr. Williamson
Training New Flight Directors. It is What We Do.
Livy Charles in the Voyager's Flight Director's Seat surrounded by her Space Tech crew.
Mr. Funk is giving the "good job but not a pass" thumb sign.
Training new flight directors is an ongoing process at the very heart of our Space EdVentures community. New flight directors come onboard having learned their trade from experienced flight directors who retire to find life outside the control room.
The art of flight directing can trace its origin back thousands of years to the first storytellers who employed vocal history as the way they passed their tribe's history from generation to generation. The young learned by listening to and memorizing the stories.
Today we celebrate the training of new flight directors by highlighting someone in the process. Please meet Livy Charles (pictured above). Livy trains under the watchful eye of master storyteller Bracken Funk at The Space Place in Lehi, Utah. She did her first test flight on Friday. A few middle school students from Renaissance Academy's Space Tech Class made up the crew. Space Tech students learn the science and art of simulators in education as an elective class.
She flew "Iron Curtain". The mission went well but as you see with Mr. Funk's thumb signal, not a pass. That's to be expected - it was her first solo test flight.
The Troubadour salutes all of you who are training to become flight directors. Learn your stories well and continue our traditions.....
Intolerance, The Story that Goes On and On and On....
Rool in the Voyager's Sick Bay having just been beamed aboard
Intolerance is one of the oldest missions told at the space centers in Utah County. I wrote the mission in the 1990's as a field trip flight for 5th grade classes. Fifth graders in Utah study US history. Slavery and the Civil War is part of the curriculum. The mission was successful from its first telling and has remained so all these years later.
Rool on the Voyager's Bridge helping the 5th grade Dragon squadron
learn his language so they can communicate.
Today, the escaped slave Rool makes weekly appearances at The Christa McAuliffe Space Center as part of their field trip and private mission programs. Intolerance is also told at Renaissance Academy's The Space Place and American Heritage's Space Center as part of the schools' Young Astronaut / Voyager Club simulator club curriculum. At The Space Place the story is told to the 5th grade squadrons in an 8 month long LDM mission. At American Heritage, 5th grade students do the mission in one full school day field trip to their own space center.
Imaginarium Theater
The Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience.
