On the 19th of September 2005 Archana, Hitesh, Samantha and I, all pupils at Highfields Science Specialist School set off on the trip of a life time to see the real NASA. We were going to meet world famous British and American, Astronauts and Cosmonauts, and see some of Florida’s and Houston’s best tourist and VIP attractions.  The trip started with a one night stay in London. Near Gatwick  airport where we met all the other ISSET winners from around the country.  The day after was the day in my opinion where the trip really started and where I really began to get excited.

It was an early start, we all had to wake up at 6:00am to catch our 10:30am flight which I found pretty hard but just about managed.  The flight to Houston was a 9 hour flight, landing at 7:30pm followed by an hour drive to the Wakulla Hotel where we would spend the next 4 nights.  That night I couldn’t sleep, a mixture of the humid weather and great excitement made it really hard to sleep.

In the morning we went for a short walk to the nearby beach where we could see the launching sight of the Apollo missions.  Later that day we visited the Apollo/Saturn V centre where I saw the historic Gemini and Apollo capsules and the amazing Saturn V rocket which size stunned me as the picture I’d earlier seen just didn’t depict it’s ‘humongous’ size.

Day four, I thought was the best day of all, it was the day we were all put to the test though some of the vigorous astronaut training programme. This involved a short briefing followed by a moon walk.  A contraption with springs attached to a harness was used to make us 6 times lighter, the same weight reduction as on the moon due to its weaker gravity.  Then we went on a three axis sphere called the tri axis trainer which is designed to give the same feelings as an out of control rocket or shuttle, this made some people fell sick, but most of us, including me found it no problem.  After all our training we were tested in a shuttle flight simulator which simulated takeoff, obit and landing, all were very difficult tasks.  Finally we went on a G Force simulator which gave the same amount of G force as a F14 Tomcat, this is about 4 to 5 G’s, 1 G means 2x your normal body weight so when it goes up to about 4/5 G’s it begins to hurt, but it was still the highlight of the day to me.

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A second set of photos from Lawrence is online now:

• http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/space/lawrenceUSApics2

Lawrence beneath the Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Center

Thanks again to Lawrence and his father for getting these to me.

Richard Anderson, Wolverhampton CLC 

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Hello everyone,

We are back in Wolverhampton now. It feels a bit weird being back, it seems to be getting dark early and I keep thinking people are driving on the wrong side of the road. The whole trip has been so amazing that it is hard to pick a favourite day or experinace. I thought the astronaut training experinace in the Kennedy Space Centre was one of the best. I loved going on all the simulators particulary the G-force one where you get spun around very fast and then get lifted up so it feels like you are falling very fast. I also found the Mission Control Centre and the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston Space Centre incredible. On the last night of the trip we went to Astronaut Scott Kelly’s house for a little party. It was surreal to be amoungt astronauts and rocket scientists. One of the astronauts there was Michael who is the American Record holder for longest time living in space, he had spent over 380 days living and working in space. I had a bit of a problem with my camera and it deleted all my pictures so I haven’t got any to show you.

Before going on this trip I already had a big interest in space and astromony but now it has grown immensely. I now know that this is a field that I wish to go into as a career. I would like to thank ISSET for giving me the chance to experience this once in a life time opportunity and also all the people on the trip for making it so great. Thank you.

Samantha 

A large collection of Lawrence’s photographs from the Step Into Space visit to the USA is now online in a photo gallery on this page:

• http://www.wolverhamptonclc.co.uk/space/lawrenceUSApics

Here are a few selected pictures:

Plaque to commemorate the Apollo 1 fire that killed Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee in 1967.

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Hello everyone,

Our flight departed at 7 p.m. Houston time, it took 9 hours and we arrived at Gatwick at 9 a.m. this morning. I got very little sleep on the plane as it was so uncomfortable. I am feeling exhausted!

Well done to Sam, Hitesh, Archana and Lawrence, and all of the other pupils for working so hard and making my visit so enjoyable.

Mr Mehmi