Today, Bonnie and I made the kind of memories we'll talk about for the rest of our lives.
I've always been fascinated by space since I was very young. And while I dreamed of going to the Kennedy Space Center one day, America was such a long way away that I thought it would remain a dream. So finally, I made it, and Bonnie returned for a second visit.
It was very special. We got to talk with an astronaut, Ken Cameron. He is a retired NASA astronaut, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel, and engineer whose career is defined by high-stakes flight testing and pioneering international cooperation in space. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he joined NASA in 1984 and logged over 561 hours in space across three shuttle missions.
He flew on three distinct missions, transitioning quickly from pilot to commander roles:
he helped deploy the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, one of NASA's "Great Observatories" designed to study high-energy radiation in the universe.
He led the second docking mission with the Russian Space Station Mir. This was a landmark flight that delivered a permanent docking module to Mir, proving the assembly techniques that would later be used to build the International Space Station.
He played a crucial role in bridging the gap between the U.S. and Russian space programs. In 1994, he served as the first NASA Director of Operations at Star City, Moscow. He lived in Russia to set up the support systems for NASA astronauts training with cosmonauts and personally trained on Soyuz and Mir systems.
Oh, and he's also an active amateur radio enthusiast.
So as you can appreciate, it was a real thrill to talk with him and hear some of his stories. Bonnie quizzed him about what it was like working with the cosmonauts.
We were lucky that we timed it so well. A SpaceX rocket launched this afternoon, and was only delayed by about half an hour, so we got to actually watch a rocket launch. When we heard nothing after the countdown, I wondered if it had failed to fire, but we just had to wait a few seconds for the intense, rumbling sound to ripple over to where we were. It was incredible!
We got to the shuttle Atlantas exhibit, and spent a lot of time at the Apollo exhibit, which was my favorite space thing when I was younger.
We were assisted by the KSC Smart Guide app, which has great audio description, although I've come back with a list of things they might do to improve the experience even more.
People were helpful, and we navigated the whole thing with plenty of great structured discoveries. What a team we make! I've got the technology, Bonnie's got ears that work properly and that incredibly personable disposition of hers. Unstoppable, I tell you.
I also got some super recordings using a Zoom H2Essential, which is an ideal wee gadget to take on a mission like this with its adjustable microphone pickup patterns and two sets of mics that record on separate tracks for later mixing. I had a cable running to the iPhone so I could capture audio from the guide.
It feels very special to have checked off such a longstanding dream from my bucket list, and it lived up to expectations.
I've always been fascinated by space since I was very young. And while I dreamed of going to the Kennedy Space Center one day, America was such a long way away that I thought it would remain a dream. So finally, I made it, and Bonnie returned for a second visit.
It was very special. We got to talk with an astronaut, Ken Cameron. He is a retired NASA astronaut, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel, and engineer whose career is defined by high-stakes flight testing and pioneering international cooperation in space. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he joined NASA in 1984 and logged over 561 hours in space across three shuttle missions.
He flew on three distinct missions, transitioning quickly from pilot to commander roles:
he helped deploy the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, one of NASA's "Great Observatories" designed to study high-energy radiation in the universe.
He led the second docking mission with the Russian Space Station Mir. This was a landmark flight that delivered a permanent docking module to Mir, proving the assembly techniques that would later be used to build the International Space Station.
He played a crucial role in bridging the gap between the U.S. and Russian space programs. In 1994, he served as the first NASA Director of Operations at Star City, Moscow. He lived in Russia to set up the support systems for NASA astronauts training with cosmonauts and personally trained on Soyuz and Mir systems.
Oh, and he's also an active amateur radio enthusiast.
So as you can appreciate, it was a real thrill to talk with him and hear some of his stories. Bonnie quizzed him about what it was like working with the cosmonauts.
We were lucky that we timed it so well. A SpaceX rocket launched this afternoon, and was only delayed by about half an hour, so we got to actually watch a rocket launch. When we heard nothing after the countdown, I wondered if it had failed to fire, but we just had to wait a few seconds for the intense, rumbling sound to ripple over to where we were. It was incredible!
We got to the shuttle Atlantas exhibit, and spent a lot of time at the Apollo exhibit, which was my favorite space thing when I was younger.
We were assisted by the KSC Smart Guide app, which has great audio description, although I've come back with a list of things they might do to improve the experience even more.
People were helpful, and we navigated the whole thing with plenty of great structured discoveries. What a team we make! I've got the technology, Bonnie's got ears that work properly and that incredibly personable disposition of hers. Unstoppable, I tell you.
I also got some super recordings using a Zoom H2Essential, which is an ideal wee gadget to take on a mission like this with its adjustable microphone pickup patterns and two sets of mics that record on separate tracks for later mixing. I had a cable running to the iPhone so I could capture audio from the guide.
It feels very special to have checked off such a longstanding dream from my bucket list, and it lived up to expectations.
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