Our day started at the NASA Media Accreditation building. There we showed our id's, picked up our badges and received our swag bag. The NASA folks were nice enough to give us a backpack with mission pins, patches, stickers and lots of other cool items. 
After picking up our badges we drove through security and parked in this parking lot. Quite the view right? I was amazed they let us park here. The day was starting off good!
After parking we followed the signs down to the Tweetup tent. This is a picture I took while we were walking by. Such a historic location. I was in awe being there. This is the same location people were watching Saturn 5's launch for the moon from and I was actually standing there.
Here is the badge we had to wear at all times. Now that I'm home I still find myself wanting to wear it.
Day one consisted of lectures in the morning and a tour in the afternoon. The picture above is Mike Massimino and I. Ever since his spacewalks to fix Hubble he's been my favorite astronaut so meeting him was something I was really looking forward to. I was really struck by how nice everyone was. They had no problem taking pictures and answering any questions we had. Massimino had to do an interaction with Elmo for Sesame Street. After that Doug Wheelock joined him and they talked to us for quite a long time. Bill Gerstenmaier was next (Associate Administer for Space Operations) and came in for awhile. I asked him about the main engine fuel valve that they replaced the week before and he spent about 5 minutes explaining it to me. Very cool. While he was talking a huge storm hit and the entire KSC was shut down due to lightening so he was stuck there for about 45 minutes. There was even talk of the shuttle taking a lightening strike. Turns out it was close to the pad but didn't damage any systems. After this weather everyone was very apprehensive about tomorrow. Some of the other people that talked to us were Angie Brewer (Atlantis flow director) and Tracy Trumm and Justin Kuglerm of the ISS.
After lunch in the NASA cafeteria we started our tour. For some reason I was really excited about eating there. The food was good but nothing special. The sandwich was about like Subway. Due to some strong storms in the morning RSS roll back had been delayed so we weren't sure if we would be able to see it. Turns out we did get to see it. The massive structure that encloses the shuttle protecting it from weather slowly rolled away and exposed Atlantis. I was able to take some very cool pictures while there. The location we were bussed to was amazingly close to the launch pad.
Doug Wheelock and I at the perimeter of Pad 39A
After viewing RSS retract we were dropped off at the Saturn 5 center for an hour. I spent the time in the gift shop getting shirts for everyone. When our time there was up we hopped back on the bus for a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building. This is the massive (5th largest in the world by volume) building where the shuttle is mated to the external tank and SRB's. It was very cool walking in knowing that every shuttle mission has started here. One sobering moment was when our guide pointed out to us that the remains of Columbia were stored in this building. I didn't know that. After the tour were free to go so we headed back to Orlando to get ready for launch day.
After picking up our badges we drove through security and parked in this parking lot. Quite the view right? I was amazed they let us park here. The day was starting off good!
After parking we followed the signs down to the Tweetup tent. This is a picture I took while we were walking by. Such a historic location. I was in awe being there. This is the same location people were watching Saturn 5's launch for the moon from and I was actually standing there.
Here is the badge we had to wear at all times. Now that I'm home I still find myself wanting to wear it.
Day one consisted of lectures in the morning and a tour in the afternoon. The picture above is Mike Massimino and I. Ever since his spacewalks to fix Hubble he's been my favorite astronaut so meeting him was something I was really looking forward to. I was really struck by how nice everyone was. They had no problem taking pictures and answering any questions we had. Massimino had to do an interaction with Elmo for Sesame Street. After that Doug Wheelock joined him and they talked to us for quite a long time. Bill Gerstenmaier was next (Associate Administer for Space Operations) and came in for awhile. I asked him about the main engine fuel valve that they replaced the week before and he spent about 5 minutes explaining it to me. Very cool. While he was talking a huge storm hit and the entire KSC was shut down due to lightening so he was stuck there for about 45 minutes. There was even talk of the shuttle taking a lightening strike. Turns out it was close to the pad but didn't damage any systems. After this weather everyone was very apprehensive about tomorrow. Some of the other people that talked to us were Angie Brewer (Atlantis flow director) and Tracy Trumm and Justin Kuglerm of the ISS.
After lunch in the NASA cafeteria we started our tour. For some reason I was really excited about eating there. The food was good but nothing special. The sandwich was about like Subway. Due to some strong storms in the morning RSS roll back had been delayed so we weren't sure if we would be able to see it. Turns out we did get to see it. The massive structure that encloses the shuttle protecting it from weather slowly rolled away and exposed Atlantis. I was able to take some very cool pictures while there. The location we were bussed to was amazingly close to the launch pad.
Doug Wheelock and I at the perimeter of Pad 39A
After viewing RSS retract we were dropped off at the Saturn 5 center for an hour. I spent the time in the gift shop getting shirts for everyone. When our time there was up we hopped back on the bus for a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building. This is the massive (5th largest in the world by volume) building where the shuttle is mated to the external tank and SRB's. It was very cool walking in knowing that every shuttle mission has started here. One sobering moment was when our guide pointed out to us that the remains of Columbia were stored in this building. I didn't know that. After the tour were free to go so we headed back to Orlando to get ready for launch day.
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