We are the Houston Twelve. We come from high schools across Scotland and we have just embarked on a learning journey to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  In June this year we attended the Scottish Space School at Strathclyde University, and after a selection workshop in August we made the final cut and were on our way to America.

 

The few days we have been here have been action packed to say the least. Within a few hours of landing, we found ourselves at the home of a flight surgeon for a welcome party. There we met British born astronaut Mike Foale, who kept us enthralled with an account of how he became an astronaut and of his six missions into space, the most interesting of which was on board the Mir Space Station which suffered a collision leading to depressurisation of one of the modules.

The next day we visited the Challenger Center for a simulated mission to the moon and Mars. We alternated between mission control and the space ship and we were each given specific roles.

After a fascinating lecture by an astronomer, we went outside on a crystal clear night for a spot of stargazing through the George Observatory’s enormous telescope.

We were so lucky to be able to see Jupiter and its four moons, and also a globular cluster that has been described as ‘looking though a time machine’.  This, our first full day, had certainly whetted our appetites for what was to come.

The undoubted highlight of the week so far was our visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  Our day began with a visit to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab where full sized mock-ups of the shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) are submerged and used to train astronauts for flight. Next up on our itinerary was a fascinating visit to the Mission Control Center which houses three facilities, one each for the ISS and the shuttle, plus the famous Apollo Mission Control room.  This was followed by a visit to Building 9 where full sized mock-ups of the ISS, the Orbiter and the Russian Soyuz rocket are housed. As if this wasn’t enough excitement for one day, our tour ended with a visit to Rocket Park where we viewed the awesome sight of the gargantuan Saturn V rocket. This was the perfect end to a perfect day.

We are now looking forward to the rest of the week. Our progress can be followed on the Scottish Space School blog.

The Scottish Space School aims to encourage young people in Scotland to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) at university and to pursue careers in these areas. Has it succeeded in its aims?  We can confirm that as far as twelve fortunate young people from Scotland are concerned, it is definitely a case of Mission Accomplished!