Tag Archives: NASA Social

NASA Social at Kennedy Space Center

I feel like I’ve been hit by lightning. Twice. Well, that sounds like a bad thing has happened to me, and it’s pretty much the opposite of that. A really awesome thing happened to me. Twice. Let me explain… Remember when I went to that event called a “NASA Social” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory? And it was kind of an ‘opportunity-of-a-lifetime’ thing? I went to my second NASA Social, this time at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I don’t know what the actual chances are mathematically, but I know that I’ve been throwing my hat into the ring (so to speak) nearly every NASA Social for years and years and was never selected. And then I was, twice in less than a year!

This NASA Social was built around the Space X CRS 4 resupply mission to the International Space Station. There is a really good “overview and highlights” summary here and the press kit is here if you want to know more about the mission and what was going to the International Space Station. (It’s really fascinating stuff!)

Over the course of two days we were “press” in the NASA TV briefing room for five different panels.

: SpaceX CRS-4 Earth Science Cargo Previewed; Steve Cole, NASA Office of Communications; Steve Volz, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters; Ernesto Rodriguez, ISS-RapidScat Project Scientist, NASA JPL; Howard Eisen, ISS-RapidScat Project Manager, NASA JPL

: Setting up the 3D printer

: 3D printer

: SpaceX CRS-4 Technology Cargo Previewed; Mike Curie, NASA Public Affairs; Duane Ratliffe, Chief Operating Officer, CASIS; Mike Yagley, Director of Research and Testing, COBRA PUMA Golf; Dr. Eugene Boland, Chief Scientist, Techshot; Jason Gilbert, Scientific Associate, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research; Niki Werkheiser, Projet Manager, 3D Printing in Zero G

: Niki Werkheiser, Projet Manager, 3D Printing in Zero G

: Niki Werkheiser, Projet Manager, 3D Printing in Zero G

: We all know if there is a Star Trek connection anywhere I’ll find it! (“Made in Space” is the name of the company, this wasn’t actually made in space. Yet.)

: “Made in Space” patch

: SpaceX CRS-4 Model Organisms Cargo Previewed; Stephanie Schierholz, NASA Office of Communications; Marshall Porterfield, Division Director, Space Life and Physical Sciences, NASA HQ; Sheila Neilson, Principal Investigator, Micro 8; Sharmila Bhattacharya, Principal Investigator, Ames Student Fruit Fly Experiment; Ruth Globus, Project Scientist, Rodent Habitat/Rodent Research, NASA Ames

: ISS ‘View from the Top’ Briefing; Stephanie Schierholz, NASA Office of Communications; Sam Scimemi, International Space Station Division Director, NASA HQ; Jeff Sheehy, Senior Technologist, Space Technology, NASA HQ; Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist

: Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist

: Next SpaceX mission to ISS previewed; Mike Curie, NASA Public Affairs; Hans Koenigsmann, VP of Mission Assurance, Space X; Kathy Winters, Launch Weather Officer, 45th Weather Squadron

: Next SpaceX mission to ISS previewed; Mike Curie, NASA Public Affairs; Hans Koenigsmann, VP of Mission Assurance, Space X; Kathy Winters, Launch Weather Officer, 45th Weather Squadron

: Mission logo

The @nasa wifi password is out of control difficult. Seems appropriate. 😉 #NASASocial

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 18, 2014

“SpaceX CRS-4 Earth Science Cargo Previewed”

“SpaceX CRS-4 Technology Cargo Previewed”

Made in Space website and more about the 3D printer.

3D printing in space! Precursor to Star Trek’s replicator? #ISS will be able to print things they need. #NASASocial pic.twitter.com/CumVVmgrMt

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 18, 2014

“SpaceX CRS-4 Model Organisms Cargo Previewed”

“ISS ‘View from the Top’ Briefing”

“Next SpaceX mission to ISS previewed”

We also had speakers come talk to us separately from the briefing room.

: Patrick O’Neill (CASIS)

: Mike Yagley, Director of Research and Testing, COBRA PUMA Golf

: Dr. Eugene Boland, Chief Scientist, Techshot

: Fathi Karouia (Micro-8)

: Mark Bourassa, Head of the Ocean Vector Winds Science Team, RapidScat

: Niki Werkheiser, Projet Manager, 3D Printing in Zero G

T-Shirt from @ISS_CASIS and “paper clip holder” from Techshot. Yummy, yummy paper clips! 📎📎📎 #nasasocial #freestuff pic.twitter.com/GIdLTk16I9

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 18, 2014

(Techshot couldn’t give us shot glasses at a NASA sponsored event, so they gave us “paper clip holders” and can’t be held accountable if we use them for other things. Like delicious beverages.)

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center is the tourist attraction, a space theme park if you will. I had one free day in Florida and I am so glad I spent it here. The sheer amount of history on display is overwhelming, and if you’re a space nerd like me, one day is not enough. (Some of these photos are horrible and for that I apologize. I’ll never understand why, when setting up items for museum display, those in charge choose dim lighting and reflective surfaces. There were so many impressive items that aren’t pictured here, these are just the best photos from a bad lot.) If you ever get the chance to go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center, GO! You won’t regret it.

: Entrance with the Rocket Garden in the background

: Mercury Mission Control Room

: Mercury Mission Control Room

: Mercury Mission Control Room

: Mercury 12B – This capsule served as the backup spacecraft for Wally Schirra’s Mercury 8 flight. It is one of five Mercury capsules produced that never flew in space.

: Mercury 12B – This capsule served as the backup spacecraft for Wally Schirra’s Mercury 8 flight. It is one of five Mercury capsules produced that never flew in space.

: Gemini capsule flown by Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan, launched on June 3, 1966.

: Gemini capsule flown by Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan, launched on June 3, 1966.

: Gemini capsule flown by Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan, launched on June 3, 1966.

: Heat Shield of the Gemini capsule flown by Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan, launched on June 3, 1966.

: Gemini spacesuit

: Apollo spacesuit

: 1/50 scale Apollo Command and Service modules mated with Lunar module.

: 1/50 scale Apollo Command and Service modules mated with Lunar module.

: Rockets

: 2/5 scale docking module

: 2/5 scale docking module

: Rocket Garden

: Just one F-1 engine provided as much thrust as all three space shuttle main engines combined.

: Rocket Garden

: Just one F-1 engine provided as much thrust as all three space shuttle main engines combined.

: Rocket Garden

: Rocket Garden

: Moon Tree

: Full size Orion model

: Full size Orion model

: Um… No. Just no.

: Apollo era Astronaut Van – used to transport fully suited crews from the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building to the launch pad approximately eight miles away.

: Apollo era Astronaut Van – used to transport fully suited crews from the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building to the launch pad approximately eight miles away.

: Skylab Multiple Docking Adapter

: On loan from Capt. James Lovell. (Note the Apollo 13 patch.)

: Inside of a Lunar Module

: Lunar Rover

: Lunar Sample

: In appreciation “for a job well done” the Apollo 13 crew presented this plaque to Kennedy Space Center personnel in 1970. It features a piece of the armrest of Lunar Module Aquarius.

: This manual, signed by Mission Commander James Lovell, was used as a reference throughout the Apollo 13 crisis.

: Apollo 14 Capsule “Kitty Hawk” January 31 – February 9, 1971

: Lunar Sample

: Moon Rock Containment Vessels

: Apollo 7 Flight Plan October 11-22, 1968

: Apollo 17 Go/No Go Cue Card December 7-19, 1972 This printed card is covered with lunar dust.

: Test Supervisor’s Log Book

: Fire Extinguisher, Apollo 14, January 31 – February 9, 1971 (With the Apollo 14 capsule in the background)

: Lunar Sample Bag Dispenser

: Lunar Module Systems Activation Checklist Apollo 10 May 18-26, 1969

: AiResearch Advanced Extra-Vehicular Suit, 1967

: Litton B1-A Advanced Extra-Vehicular Suit, 1969

: Roger Chaffee’s watch

: Hand Casts of the Apollo 11 Astronauts

: Space Shuttle Engine

: Space Shuttle Engine

: This is what the inside of a Space Shuttle looks like.

: Space Shuttle tool box

: Space wrench

: Space Shuttle era AstroVan

: If you lived on the International Space Station this is what your ‘bedroom’ might look like.

: International Space Station toilet

: “For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.” – John F. Kennedy

: Rocket Garden

: Rocket Garden

: Rocket Garden

: Rocket Garden

: Massive space shuttle fuel tank and boosters tower over everything around them

: Massive space shuttle fuel tank and boosters

: LEM

: Massive space shuttle fuel tank and boosters

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center, but I separated out these pictures from the others because, well, there’s a lot of them. I’m a little obsessed, you should see how many pictures I took of her and didn’t post! To me every single photo of Atlantis is a special snowflake showing details that aren’t shown as well as in the twenty other identical photos taken at the same angle, but your mileage may vary. 😉

I know I have been all about Endeavour these past few years but that’s because she’s here in LA and I can see her as often as I can convince someone to take me to the California Science Center, but if you’d asked me as a child which was my favorite Space Shuttle I’d have said Atlantis. If you know me really well, you probably know why. Anyone want to guess? (Hey, I never said it was a good reason!)

No really, I’m sitting underneath the Space Shuttle Atlantis right now. Freaking out a little.

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 17, 2014

Does anybody who follows me on twitter remember when I sat, just kickin’ it, underneath Space Shuttle Endeavour? (8 year old me would NEVER believe it!) Well, I’ve done that under two Space Shuttles now, and it never gets less cool.

And like any good theme park, they are more than happy to take your picture and your money.

The Astronaut Hall of Fame was really impressive, lots of displays and artifacts that deserved way more time than I had to give them. Once again, poor lighting and reflective surfaces, apologies. It is separate from the Kennedy Space Center, but a general admission ticket to KSC gets you in free to the Hall of Fame. If you’re visiting KSC make time to stop here.

: America’s first man in orbit, John Glenn, wore this jumpsuit after completing his 3-orbit flight aboard Friendship 7.

: Items used aboard various Mercury flights

: Mercury Spacecraft “Sigma 7” – 6 orbit flight on October 3, 1962 – Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

: Mercury Spacecraft “Sigma 7” – 6 orbit flight on October 3, 1962 – Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

: Does this count as a “selfie?”

: Mercury Spacecraft “Sigma 7” – 6 orbit flight on October 3, 1962 – Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

: The Mercury 7 astronauts signed this baseball used in the first Houston Astros game in the new Astrodome.

: Items used by Mercury’s Faith 7 pilot Gordon Cooper

: Cameras used in space

: This 16mm Maurer camera was a backup for the one used by Jim McDivitt on Gemini 4 to photograph Ed White as he pinwheeled over the Earth.

: Eating and drinking in space

: Space music

: John Young’s jacket

: Mission patches

: Alan Shepard’s training spacesuit, Apollo 14, January 31 – February 5, 1971

: Pete Conrad used this scoop to collect rocks and soil at Apollo 12’s Oceanus Procellarum landing site.

: This metal mid-deck chair flew on early Challenger and Columbia missions and was later replaced by a more lightweight chair.

: Space food

: This Coca-Cola machine (a mockup) was the prototype for the actual Coca-Cola dispensing device flown on STS-77 in 1996 which managed to serve a drinkable cola. It controlled the temperature of the beverage during mixing and dispensing with computer accuracy, and minimized agitation.

: Experiment Control and Monitoring Module (ECMM)

: Empty space tool box

: Astronaut Passports are stamped by designated landing site countries in the event of an emergency space shuttle landing.

: Com Units

: During the flight of Apollo 12 to and from the Moon, mission commander Pete Conrad wore this constant wear garment.

: Deke Slayton’s personal items

: Helmets

: Wally Schirra’s jacket and Fellowship award

: Deke Slayton’s ID badges

: Actual console from the Mission Control Center in Houston, TX. This console and others like it controlled the six Apollo Moon landings, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and Shuttle flights through 1996.

: You might recognize the name of the artist…

: Alan B. Shepard Jr., first American in space

: A small sample of Apollo XI memorabilia

The Space Shuttle Crawler

The giant vehicles were used to carry spacecraft from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. The pair of crawlers were originally built in 1965 to transport the Saturn V rockets, and transported orbiters ready to launch during the length of the space shuttle program. Each crawler is the size of a baseball infield, and is powered by locomotive and large electrical power generator engines. Hydraulics keep the crawler surface flat even when it is going up an incline. In the future, one is expected to take commercially operated rockets and spacecraft to the launch pad. The other is being strengthened to handle the Space Launch System (SLS), a rocket and launch tower combination heavier than even the Saturn V moon rockets the crawlers were designed for. (I stole that info from a NASA document here, which you should all go read, because it’s kind of fascinating. Some more history about the crawlers is here.)

ULA’s Horizontal Integration Facility

ULA is United Launch Alliance, the love child of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. (Their marketing people probably don’t want me to describe it that way, sorry!) The floor is the Horizontal Integration Facility is the flattest in the country. That is a Delta IV rocket you see there, getting ready for a planned December launch. This will be the rocket that takes Orion on its first test flight. Historic!

Duct tape spotted at @nasa proving once and for all, it fixes EVERYTHING! 🙂 #NASASocial

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 19, 2014

Here I am standing in front of a Delta IV rocket. Or part of one anyway, one of us was too wide to fit in the photo!

Whoever does social media for ULA made my day. Almost no one I encounter knows what my online ‘name’ is a reference to, @ULAlaunch not only got it, but told me they loved it.

There is a cool video here of the roll out and lift of this Delta IV rocket.

Is it possible to have romantic feelings for a building? I think if it is, I have a massive crush on NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building. The photos show that the VAB is big, but what they don’t show you is just how big. No really, the VAB is even more impressive in person.

NASA’s VAB was constructed using 65,000 cubic yards of concrete, 45,000 steel beams, 1 million steel bolts, and 98,590 tons of steel.
It would take 250 billion ping pong balls to fill the VAB. (That is 791 times the population of the United States.)
13 Saturn V rockets were processed for Apollo and the Skylab space station.
The American Flag on the front of the VAB is 209 feet high and 110 feet wide. The blue field is the size of an NBA regulation basketball court. Each star is 6 feet across. Each stripe is 9 feet wide.
The VAB high bay doors are the largest doors in the world at 456 feet high, and take about 45 minutes to completely open or close.
It took 6,000 gallons of paint to originally paint the American flag and bicentennial logo on the VAB.
The VAB’s 325 ton crane can lift 47 full grown African Elephants.
Space shuttles were prepared in the VAB for 135 missions.
By volume the VAB = 3 1/2 Empire State Buildings.

(Facts totally stolen from a handout on the VAB we were given.)

: The NASA News Center Annex was out home-away-from-home while we were at the Kennedy Space Center.

: (Hi Andres!)

A quick peek inside the Vehicle Assembly Building

If you’ve ever seen pictures of rockets ready to take humans to the moon or of a space shuttle ready to launch, you’ve seen NASA’s Launch Complex 39, made up of launch pads 39A and 39B. Launch pad 39A has been leased to Space X who are modifying it to launch various Falcon rockets. Launch pad 39B will be modified for SLS and other commercial launches. I really can’t say enough about the history these launch pads have seen.

We were driven out to launch pad 39B. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been privileged enough to do, and I got a bit emotional.

: Crawler pathway and launchpad the the background.

: Crawler pathway and launchpad the the background.

: Off in the distance all the way to the left is launch pad 39A, in the picture to the right is launch pad 39B. Yay for cameras that have ‘panorama’ features 😉

“Tour @nasa and see things big enough to need the panorama function on your camera.” – NASA’s new ad campaign, probably. #NASASocial

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 19, 2014

Space X was very busy getting the Falcon 9 rocket ready to launch at another launch pad, and we were allowed to go to the launch pad and watch. The Falcon 9 is horizontal until just a few hours before launch, so it might not look the way you’re expecting it to.

: “Rocket Rd.” with a rocket in the background!

: Cameras set up to photograph the launch.

This is also where the story takes a horrifying turn. (Dun, dun, DUN!) On the bus before getting out to see the rocket we were warned that a giant rattlesnake had been spotted around there in the last few days and to watch our step. There’s pretty much nothing that will make me freak out more. I got out of the bus, snapped as many pictures as I could in a very short amount of time, and climbed back on the bus to sit and wait for everyone else. (Assuming everyone wasn’t taken out by the snake and I was in fact the last living human who would ever board that particular bus.) So what did we learn from this experience? My fear of snakes is actually greater than my love of space awesomeness, and when push comes to shove I’m not ‘team player.’ Alien invasion or zombie apocalypse? I’ll fight (and die if necessary) shoulder-to-shoulder by your side, comrades in arms. But snakes? I’m outta here, it’s everyone for themselves!

Shuttle ran into a buzzard on launch once. NASA started leaving an animal carcass far away to attract the buzzards during launch #NASASocial

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 19, 2014

: KSC is pretty

: Hobbit holes?

: The only thing I like about flying is the view.

: Signs commemorating launches at pads 39A and 39B

: M113 Armored Escape Vehicle – Three were on hand on shuttle launch day. Two stood by less than a mile from the launch pad, each with a crew of firefighters on board. The other M113 sat empty with its back ramp open facing the door of an emergency bunker near the pad.

: Mission Patch. (Look at the itty-bitty mouse!)

: Astronaut Beach House.

: Astronaut Beach House.

: ULA’s launch pad 37B

: Orion Launch Abort System

: Iconic countdown clock

You guys, I’m pretty sure I just saw a hobbit hole at Kennedy Space Center. #NASASocial

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 19, 2014

And then it was time for the launch… It was the middle of the night. These things rarely stick to schedule. The weather was bad and getting worse. Everyone was trying to stay positive, the bus ride to out viewing site was actually really fun, but I think we all knew… And then the launch was scrubbed. For a number of reasons I couldn’t change my travel plans to stay for the launch attempt 24 hours later. (And there was no guarantee that one wouldn’t get scrubbed too.) So there ended the NASA Social for me. I was a little bummed not to see a launch, sure, but overall the experience was so overwhelmingly amazing and full of bucket list moments that I really can’t be sad. Kind of like getting sprinkles on the icing on your cake, you can’t really be sad if there isn’t confetti while you eat it. (Did that even make any sense? It makes sense in my head, I swear!)

“This bus has done what the Joker never could!” – overheard on #NASASocial media bus. #maybeyouhadtobethere

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 20, 2014

NASA image of the launch of SpaceX-4

Here is video of the liftoff of SpaceX-4. You can watch it the same way I did, online.

The #NASASocial #SpaceX4 Family (minus a person or two)

This was the view out my window on the flight home.

Goodbye #NASASocial, and thank you! @NASASocial @APR21203 pic.twitter.com/zFKqu6me0k

— Jennifer (@bdbdb) September 20, 2014

Thank you to NASA for having this event and inviting me. Thank you to Jason and everyone on the social media team for all their hard work. Especially thank you to Andres who I know I made extra work for, and who never once seemed anything less than delighted to accommodate me. Last but not least, huge thanks go to a very special friend without whom I wouldn’t have been able to attend in the first place. This really was a highlight in my life and something I will never forget!

If you would like to opportunity to attend an event like this one watch the NASA Social page on the NASA website, follow @NASA or @NASASocial on twitter, like NASA on Facebook, follow NASA on Instagram, or just go to the webpage that lists all of NASA’s social media accounts and you can pretty much find NASA everywhere.

NASA Social at JPL

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I’ve been trying to write this post for about 24 hours now, and I just can’t. I can’t find the words to express how incredible and amazing an utterly mind blowing the experience of going to a NASA Social was… Maybe the words will come to me once I’ve had more time to process the experience, but for now here are some of my pictures, they’ll have to tell the story for me.

The Von Karman Auditorium was “home base” for us. How do you decorate your auditorium? Well, if you’re JPL you decorate with space craft…

: Cassini

: Explorer

: Huygens

: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

: SMAP

: Voyager (For the record I was NOT the first person in the room to call her “V’ger!”)

: The Golden Record (Does this count as a selfie?)

The list of speakers we heard was impressive. Another attendee said something about how everyone was so excited to have us there at JPL and share their work with us, and that was so true. Everyone was fascinating and I know I missed at least half of everything between trying to listen, take pictures, and tweet all at the same time. I tried to be good with details, but if I’ve gotten anything wrong in this post please let me know in the comments.

A 2 hour portion of the program was broadcast on NASA TV and has been uploaded to you tube. (Start around 16:30. For some reason the beginning is just a title card for a long time.)

Another piece of the program:

: Stephanie Smith, Courtney O’Connor, and Veronica McGregor welcome us to the “Earth Now” NASA Social

: Jim Graf, Dep. Dir. Earth Science Directorate, JPL starts us out talking about Earth Science at NASA

: Erika Podest & Narendra Das, SMAP Research Scientists

: Doug Ellison, JPL Visualization Producer talks “Eyes on the Earth”

: “Science Selfie of Earth” 😉

: Howard Eisen, RapidScat Project Manager and Ernesto Rodriguez, RapidScat Project Scientist

: Josh Willis, JPL Oceanographer & Climate Scientist talks Oceans, Climate & Jason-3

: Annmarie Eldering, OCO-2 Dep. Project Scientist and Mike Gunson, OCO-2 Project Scientist talk about OCO-2 (“A *carbon* copy of OCO!”)

: Ziad Haddad, Supervisor, Radar Science and Joe Turk, Precipitation Scientist talk about Global Precipitation Measurement

: Felix Landerer, Research Scientist and Graeme Stephens, Dir., Center for Climate Sciences talk IPCC

: Annie Richardson and Stephanie Smith end the day on a fun note…

: …Climate Jeopardy!

: General Larry D. James, Deputy Director of JPL.

: Veronica McGregor

: Stephanie Smith starts the speaker program on day 2

: Ashwin Vasavada, Deputy Project Scientist on Mars Science Laboratory gives us a Curiosity update

: “I’m a huge fan of this project!” – Bobak Ferdowsi

: Suzy Dodd, Project Manager on Voyager gives us an update. Voyager’s mission was supposed to last 4 years. She launched in 1977 and she’s still going! “Voyager is an ambassador on a goodwill mission” says Suzy.

: Voyager has many features, including an 8 Track. The phone in your pocket has more memory than Voyager.

: Hearing from Kevin Hand who is in Alaska right now designing an underwater rover. We watched video of methane bubbles trapped under the ice being lit on fire!

: Saying goodbye at the end of day 2. I didn’t want to leave.

When we arrived on day 2 there were parts on our tables. Actual spacecraft parts! And there were scientists and engineers all throughout the room to explain the parts and demonstrate NASA’s various apps.

(If you see a table tent in the photo it was just the table name, it isn’t connected to the part on the table.)

: So cute!

: Bobak explains how Curiosity’s cables were cut

: I’m in this picture if you know where to look

: Does this look like some sort of Klingon weapon to anyone else?

And of course while we were in the room I had to take the obligatory “pretending I work at NASA” picture.

We had a speaker on Monday who was not in the program. LeVar Burton who was at JPL to shoot a PSA graciously made time to stop and talk to us.

Our time at JPL wasn’t all speakers, we were treated to tours of some amazing places…

The JPL Museum complete with scientists and demonstrations

: Life size Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity)

: Life Size Sojourner Rover. She’s so cute! I want a stuffed version of her to sit with the Enterprise and Space Shuttle on my bed. 🙂

: “In 1969, the Apollo 12 crew brought back this piece of Surveyor 3‘s surface sampler. It was used to dig trenches in the Moon’s surface to learn about the lunar soil.”

: Moon rock brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972.

: Meteorites from asteroid Vesta found in Antarctica

: Kepler (1/20 scale)

: Spitzer Space Telescope (1/8 scale)

: Hubble Space Telescope (1/25 scale)

: Magellan (1/25 scale)

: Mariner 10 (1/10 scale)

: Galileo

: “Galileo carried a four-track 114MB digital magnetic tape recorder to store its data before transmitting it to Earth.”

The Deep Space Network Mission Control

: This is “The Center of the Universe” because all data from out in the universe comes through this room

: The station Bobak Ferdowsi was sitting at the night of Curiosity’s landing

: Same for Adam Steltzner

: Geordi?

: My “selfie” skills need work

They showed us a video of the room on Curiosity’s landing night, while we were sitting in that room. I got a little misty-eyed. Dare Mighty Things, indeed…

The Spacecraft Assembly Building

And the Mars Yard.

(I have no idea where this originally came from, but I’ve seen it online a few times and it always cracks me up!)

I’ve done a lot of really cool things in my life. This was the coolest.

I think I took about 300 pictures in the Mars Yard alone, I was really excited to be there!

: This may just be the cutest sign I’ve ever seen!

: Curiosity stops every meter and a half to take pictures. I do that too. She is plotting best course to take, I’m just easily distracted!

: Those holes in her wheel spell out a trail of morse code as she roves around.

: Curiosity’s twin on Earth is called Maggie. (This one doesn’t have the nuclear generator.)

: These wheels are the old design, which had “JPL” on them. NASA wasn’t too hot on that idea apparently and asked for a change. The engineers at JPL complied, but NASA didn’t find out until it was too late that the new design said “JPL” in morse code. (Does this count as the first graffiti on Mars?)

: Meet “Scarecrow.” She is just Curiosity’s frame. It makes up for the weight differential between Earth and Mars.

Hangin’ out with my new pal Curiosity! (okay, Maggie)

JPL is a really beautiful place, in addition to all of the awesome science happening there…

: Science-y street names

: Deer live at JPL, here’s one just kinda hanging out 😉

: It was a beautiful day. (If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see @TinaCassler waving!)

Here are the official group photos from JPL. (Click to see various sizes, up to and including ginormous!)

Normal picture

“Goofy” picture. (Not that much different) 😉

With “NASA Mohawk Guy” and space cutie, Bobak Ferdowsi

Now back to real life, but I sure could get used to being treated like a VIP at JPL every day! 🙂

Health update: These two days were very hard on my body, especially the 2nd day. I’m not sure how long it will take me to recover (so to speak) but everything was more than worth it! The staff at JPL had a golf cart standing by to take me where I needed to go, and other than a few places I was able to sit down when I needed to. No one made me feel singled out or like ‘that disabled lady’ (you’d be surprised how often well-meaning people do this) and I was able to be just one of the group. And woo-hoo I didn’t fall even once while I was there! 🙂 Special thanks to a wonderful friend who played chauffeur both days so I was able to take pain meds when I needed to and not have to worry about driving later. ❤

One thing I learned over the course of the event is exactly how bad my “selfie” skills are, so there are not that many pictures with me in them. Here are some pictures other people have posted.

@VickySvyrydyuk posted this photo of @susankitchens, myself, and @thisDianeNorris.