Reunion Weekend at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center
 The USSRC is excited about a special Reunion Weekend this summer on Friday, July 18, 2008, through Saturday, July 19, 2008, which includes the Fifth Annual Saturn/Apollo Reunion and the Second Annual SPACE CAMP Hall of Fame Dinner. Both events will be held in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, creating a huge weekend celebration for the original Saturn V team members and our SPACE CAMP alumni.
The Reunion, presented by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne on Friday, July 18, will be a casual party with barbecue and all the fixings, featuring a brief program inside the Davidson Center under the Saturn V rocket. The Reunion will allow those retired members of the Saturn and Apollo teams to reminisce and see old friends from years gone by. Special guests confirmed to date include Col. Walter Cunningham (Apollo VII), Dr. George Mueller (NASA Associate Administrator, Office of Manned Space Flight 1963-69), and Paul Calle (original member of the NASA Fine Art Program).
There will be a number of special activities during the day on Saturday, July 19.Tentatively planned are artist print signings, including Paul Calle and Cynthia Parsons, a local watercolor artist who has painted many scenes of our campus, plus a meet-the-author book signing session. Austin Boyd is one of the authors confirmed (he helped us celebrate our 25th anniversary at our first "Thursday Night at the Museum" event).
On that Saturday evening, the USSRC will hold the Hall of Fame Dinner, presented by ATK Launch Systems. We started the Hall of Fame last year on the 25th anniversary of SPACE CAMP as a way of recognizing outstanding alumni, and this year we will induct six new members into the 2008 class. In a more formal setting, Hall of Fame guests will dine at white-clothed tables beneath the Saturn V. There will be a number of honorary guests attending, including Jim Halsell and Robert "Hoot" Gibson, retired NASA astronauts.
Individual ticket prices for the Reunion are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets for the Hall of Fame Dinner are $40 each. To purchase tickets, or for more information about these annual events, please visit www.spacecamp.com/reunionweekend. Make plans now to attend this fun-filled weekend celebration!
2008 Hall of Fame Inductees
This year's SPACE CAMP Hall of Fame inductees were chosen from a group of over forty nominees in three different categories - Friend of SPACE CAMP, Former Employee, and Former Camper. After careful deliberation by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee, the following individuals were chosen for the 2008 class:
Friend of SPACE CAMP
- Oscar Holderer - Huntsville, AL
- Marlenn Maicki - Bloomfield, MI
Former Employee
Former Camper
- Captain Phillip Smith - Seymour Johnson AFB, NC
- Vincent Vazzo - Huntsville, AL
- Spc. Josh Whitfield - California
Congratulations to these six deserving inductees!
Adult Alumni SPACE CAMP: Now Taking Reservations
The USSRC will offer an Adult Alumni Camp this summer on the weekend of July 18-20, the same weekend of the Saturn/Apollo Reunion and Hall of Fame Dinner. All adult alumni are invited to attend. Pricing for the camp is $499 per person and includes housing in the habitat, luncheon with an astronaut, and access to both the Reunion and the Hall of Fame Dinner. If you prefer to arrange for your own housing, the off-site housing price for the camp is $449.
Registration for the Alumni Camp will be Friday, July 18, 2008, from 11:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Graduation will be held Sunday, July 20, 2008, at 11:00 a.m.
For more information about this program, or to register, please visit www.spacecamp.com or call our reservations department at 1-800-63-SPACE. When registering, please use the promotional code ALM25.
The deadline for registration is July 4.
More New Merchandise in the USSRC Gift Shops
The USSRC is pleased to report that we have received several new specialty items in our gift shops. T-shirts, canvas prints, coasters and note cards featuring artist Paul Calle's Power to Go painting (print shown below) as well as beautiful, hand-blown glass planets are currently available. Spray painting artist, Enrique Morales, will also be exhibiting his artistic talents at the USSRC. From now until August, Morales, visiting with us from Miami Beach, Florida, will be creating canvas paintings featuring space scenes right in front of our visitors' eyes.
We are also excited about the opening of a new gift shop on May 31 just inside Rocket Park, offering museum guests another opportunity to purchase one-of-a-kind USSRC and SPACE CAMP memorabilia.
The Power to Go painting is reproduced on a mural that spans two stories and is the focal point in the foyer of the visitors' center that adjoins the new Davidson Center for Space Exploration, where the Saturn V rocket is housed.
|
|
|
Alumni Spotlight
Carly Toder's interest in aerospace began on April 7, 1990, as a five-year-old kindergartner in White Bear Lake, MN. Although she could barely tie her shoes, Carly got the experience of a lifetime as co-pilot in her father's rented airplane. One spring day in International Falls, MN, after a successful takeoff, Carly's father turned to her and said, "Your airplane." Carly performed to the best of her five-year-old ability, and after a few minutes, she reluctantly relinquished the controls to her father. Ending the day with a successful landing, in his logbook Carly's father wrote, "Carly flew the plane and flew the airplane well."
From that moment, Carly's interest in aerospace grew, eventually progressing from aviation to space travel. But in the Midwest, space exploration and aviation were not popular subjects in school and Carly soon realized that she would have to find her own way to further her career goals. For that reason, she attended SPACE ACADEMY (1997), AVIATION CHALLENGE Mach II (1998), and Advanced SPACE ACADEMY (2000). Carly says these camps solidified her belief that her choice to follow a career path in engineering was correct. They also helped motivate Carly to earn her pilot's license when she was 18 years old, thereby becoming her family's third generation pilot.
When deciding on a college, Carly figured the only way to pursue aviation was through a traditional engineering discipline at a top-notch school. Therefore, she elected to attend Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. As a sophomore, Carly had the opportunity to co-op at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA. During her rotations there, Carly worked in flight simulation hardware and research instrumentation. She was also introduced to a flight surgeon who served as medical director of the facility. After several hours of conversation with the director, Carly was hooked on bioastronautics and space medicine. She decided that voltage, microelectronics, and integrated circuits were not as appealing as working with living systems and applying advanced technology to medical care. Consequently, she transferred to the University of Minnesota.
During the summer of 2006, Carly was one of a handful of students selected to intern at NASA Johnson Space Center as part of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute's (NSBRI) summer internship program where her research was devoted to advanced EKG applications and technology. Carly went on to graduate in May 2007 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical engineering and a minor in cognitive biological psychology. Following graduation, she decided to take a break and head back to Huntsville for SPACE CAMP. She spent almost 10 months working as a counselor in both the AVIATION CHALLENGE and SPACE CAMP programs.
In February, Carly accepted a job as a biomedical flight controller with Wyle Laboratories in Houston, TX. As Operations Team Lead, Carly is assigned to NASA's two resistive exercise devices, one on the International Space Station (ISS) and the other at Johnson Space Center. In this capacity, Carly assists with day-to-day operations such as writing procedures for the crew, scheduling maintenance activities, supporting the mission control console workers, and keeping track of hardware on the ISS.
As she reflects on her experiences, Carly is reminded of lessons learned at SPACE CAMP: "Each program taught me some of life's most important lessons; principles I have hardwired into my brain and try to apply to my everyday activities," she explains. "I learned that life is all about commitment, enthusiasm, dedication, and being able to work as part of a team. SPACE CAMP taught me how to focus on what is important and it gave me the confidence to pursue a dream that many did not think possible or relevant."
Carly returned to Huntsville as a counselor because she believes that no matter what career path a person chooses, it is his/her responsibility to encourage the next generation to follow their own dreams and show them what can be accomplished through hard work and discipline.
"They, in turn," she concludes, "will repeat the cycle and pass along their values, wisdom, and work ethic to future generations."
If you have a SPACE CAMP alumnus you would like to spotlight in a future newsletter, please e-mail holleyg@spacecamp.com.
|
|
