Hot on the heels of Cameron Wade’s report back from Wallops, his schoolmate Billy Shannon has also written a report from his adventure to see a rocket launch that was co-sponsored by BABBloggers!
He said:
Thank you to everyone who helped us be able to go. You gave me a great adventure that I will never forget.
I have been trying to get a hold of the teacher, Pamela Ghaffarian, to send her the check from all the donations (it’s burning a hole in my PayPal account). I’m going to pester her for pictures, too.
June 21st, 2006 at 10:54 am
It is kids like these that help keep science alive.
I just hope that George W. Bush doesn’t come after them!
June 21st, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Good stuff! By the way, Phil, I saw a cartoon that I thought you’d like:
Popularizing Science
June 21st, 2006 at 12:49 pm
This pleases me to no end…for a 5th grader to finally see the ocean. Being born on the East Coast has its advantages.
Cool!
That’s really sweet. Something to be said for essays.
(Gee, all I won in 5th grade was a voting-poster contest. Wish NASA had paired up with my school. ~sniffle~)
June 21st, 2006 at 1:41 pm
I too was struck by how big of a deal it was for both of these young “flatlanders” to get to the ocean. Kinda reminds me to not take things for granted, and make sure I treasure my kids’ enjoyment of “first contacts”.
June 21st, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Now, what’d really be cool: Get those kids to the other coast to launch a polar orbiting satellite and let them monitor the ice mass at both poles.
I’ve been to the Atlantic (Virginia Beach), lived near the Pacific (even swam in it – Geez it was cold), been to the Gulf (not that you’d catch me swimming with the jellies but at least it’d be warm) and grew up around the Great Lakes up in the Great White North.
The only space launches I’ve watched were on the left coast. I never saw my own experiment launched (not that I ever designed one) Still … pretty cool.
jbs
June 22nd, 2006 at 11:14 am
I’m glad these kids were able to relax and have a good time on their first trip to the sea. It must have been awesome for them. Certainly a diversion from the main reason they went to the launch. I feel there were lessons learned by all in this adventure.
Ivan.
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Now that brings back memories. I grew up on and around Wallops Island as a kid. Used to fish in Wallops Lake (we called it the Mill Pond). My dad used to take me over to the Island itself to watch rockets go up -sounding rockets, Scouts, and the like.
Much of the stuff they have at the Museum for the public at the Goddard Space Flight Center just before you take the causeway to Chincoteague was in a hanger on the base itself (called Wallops Flight Center back then). I used to sit in the Gemini space capsule they have and climb on the scale rocket models -those were located near the main gate of Goddard.
Lots of great memories there.