Tag Archives: NASA

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#GoForPayload at the California Science Center

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Social media has been good to me lately. Really good. So you remember that I just got back from a NASA Social at Kennedy Space Center? Still recovering from that trip, I was selected for another social media event, this time to go to the California Science Center. (This one involved significantly less travel!)

From the press release:

“Go for Payload” is a delicate operation that will install a flown SpaceHab and other equipment into Endeavour’s Payload Bay. The installation of the SpaceHab will take place on the day of the news conference.

The payload being installed is a similar configuration to the load carried on the STS-118 mission. Former NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan, who served as STS-118 Mission Specialist, will be present at the news conference. The operation takes place from now to October 25, 2014. This will be the first time the payload bay doors of an operational orbiter have been opened anywhere except at the Kennedy Space Center or the Palmdale assembly facility. The doors are made of very lightweight composite material and were not designed to be operated on Earth under its gravitational influence. As a result, it requires specific equipment and procedures to operate safely. This will also be the last time a payload is installed in a space shuttle.

Walking in, Endeavour was as awe-inspiring as she always is but there was a little more ‘oomph’ to her this time as she was all open and ready for the SpaceHab to be installed.

Endeavour with her payload bay doors open (click for full size)

Astronaut Barbara Morgan speaking in front of Endeavour (click for full size)

Astronaut Barbara Morgan and Dr. Kenneth Phillips in front of Endeavour (click for full size)

Brief clip of Astronaut Barbara Morgan during her Q&A

In front of Endeavour

In front of SpaceHab

Also really cool: Allen Chen was at the event as a social media participant. You might remember him from the night Curiosity landed on Mars. Yup, he lands things on other planets for a living. If not the coolest job ever, definitely in the top 5! It took a little bit of effort not to follow him around and pester him with a zillion questions about what he does, thankfully there were other things happening to distract me. 😉

The hashtag for the event was #GoForPayload if you want to search social media and see other people’s photos and video. The California Science Center can be found on twitter here and Facebook here.

When you’re at the California Science Center you can’t not go visit your favorite exhibits.

Other people’s photos:

Click the photo for a great LA Times article about SpaceHab’s installation in Endeavour

Photo credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Click for a really great series of photos on CollectSpace.com


(Can you find me?)


(I’m in this one too!)

(The back of my head is twitter-famous!)

(Okay clearly I’m mostly interested in the pictures where you can see me, but can you blame me? I’m in the same photo as a space shuttle, that’s never getting old!) 😉

A great picture of SpaceHab’s final location, inside Endeavour

When Endeavour’s permanent home is built she’ll be displayed vertically with a fuel tank and boosters, as though on the launch pad ready for take off. I can’t wait!

NASA Social at Kennedy Space Center

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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”

“SpaceX CRS-4 Technology Cargo Previewed”

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

“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.

(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.

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!)

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.

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!

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.)

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.

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.

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!

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!)

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.

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.

Other links:

ULA Launch on Instagram posted pictures of our visit here and here. (Can you find me in that first one?)

@carnolddesigns put together a “storify.com” of the NASA Socal here and posted pictures here.

Schelley Cassidy posted pictures here.

My first NASA Social, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

California Science Center

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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…

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:

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.)

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

The Deep Space Network Mission Control

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!


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…

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.

@Janestarz posted this picture of a group of us looking down into the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, I’m the one closest to the camera.

@amyjclayton posted “Table Jason at lunch with Howard Eisen.”


L-R: @susankitchens, myself, @thisDianeNorris, @VickySvyrydyuk, @elsienw, Howard Eisen, @anna_1312

@CourtOConnor posted this picture. I’m small, but I’m there!

@VeronicaMcG posted this picture. (Back of my head.)

@PlanetaryKeri posted this picture. (Another ‘back of my head’ shot.)

@TinaCassler posted this picture. (Busy tweeting!)

@Streeterama posted three photos here that I’m in.

@kikipessa posted a photo here.

@ridingrobots posted a photo here.

@RaeBeta posted a photo here.

@RaeBeta posted a photo here.

@TinaCassler posted a photo here.

@susankitchens posted a photo here.

@NASAJPL posted a photo here.

@NASAJPL posted a photo here.

@ageekmom posted some photos here.

Veronica McGregor turned our tweets into a story using Storify here.

@audvin made this awesome network centrality graph of the #NASASocial JPL tweet stream

@audvin posted “A visualization of the #NASASocial conversation. Data from the 3,500 last tweets. @NASAJPL” here.

@audvin posted “Day 2: People central to the #NASASocial conversations. No surprise to see @MarsCuriosity :)” here.

Endeavourfest & The California Science Center

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Does everyone remember when Endeavour was moved on the streets of Los Angeles to the California Science Center?  Here are a few of my pictures from her journey.

Can you believe that was a whole year ago?!! The California Science Center celebrated Endeavour’s “homecoming” anniversary with Endeavourfest October 11-13. The California Science Center is in Exposition Park which houses the Coliseum, many museums, a rose garden, and more. It’s a neat place to explore if you’ve never been, and quite beautiful.

Walking up the the front of the Science Center was a Dragon. No, not like the fire-breathing ‘princess-in-peril’ type, the kind of Dragon that SpaceX has been launching into space. This particular Dragon was the first one ever to go into space, orbiting he Earth in December 2010. (It also amused me that the signs telling you not to touch the spacecraft said “Please do not pet the Dragon.” In related news, I am easily amused.)

It isn’t long after walking into the Science Center before you’re looking up and saying “wow.”

But I was really all about Endeavourfest. We went into a big conference room and sat for a good long time. Despite the government shutdown forcing the cancellation of NASA’s participation in the event there were plenty of things to see and do.

First we heard from one of the filmmakers of “Three Days, Three Nights.” It is a 20 minute documentary on Endeavour’s 68 hour journey through the streets of LA to get to the California Science Center. Even though you know going in to the film how it’s going to end (spoiler alert: she arrived) you’re holding your breath as you watch some of the close calls and challenges. It’s a short but powerful little film, more about human ingenuity, inspiration, and doing the ‘impossible’ than a simple “how it happened” story. I wish it was available to stream or purchase somewhere but so far it isn’t. Hopefully this will change soon. I’m sorry I didn’t get the name of the gentleman who spoke, he was great.

Next we heard from Astronaut Danny Olivas. (An honest-to-goodness astronaut!) Everything he had to say was interesting but honestly I spent most of his talk watching the crowd. I can’t even tell you how much it filled my heart with hope to see how excited the kids in that room were. Little ones dressed up in astronaut costumes. Older kids asking questions about what it takes to be an astronaut. Questions about space and science and the universe we live in. Questions that showed a desire to learn and explore. I know it was a “preaching to the choir” kind of thing, everyone in that room chose to be there so of course there was interest, but it was so nice to see kids looking up to someone for something other than behaving badly on television. But that’s a rant for a different post…

John “Danny” Olivas is pretty awesome. Well, I mean, all astronauts are awesome. Duh. But everything I know about Danny Olivas is impressive. He was an aquanaut. He went into space twice. Go read a sort bio about him here. Go do it now, I’ll wait. Are you back now? Good. Talk about having the right attitude in life! Those were some great lessons applicable to everything, not just astronaut stuff. (If you didn’t click the link and just kept reading this I bet you’re curious now, huh?)

Danny Olivas wrote a children’s book called Endeavour’s Long Journey. An awesome friend surprised me with an autographed copy a few months ago. I highly recommend it if you have kids who are interested in space. I think if you’re a grown up you can use the “kid at heart” excuse, it totally counts. 😉

Now I should be clear, I’ve never been to the California Science Center before. Maybe it’s one of those things where you never do the things in your town because you live there and can go anytime? I know, I really have no excuse… I knew some of what to expect, but for the most part I was surprised by all of the amazing things there. Nothing was a cooler surprise than finding myself in front of a Mercury, a Gemini, and an Apollo capsule. Did you understand that sentence? HOLY CRAP THEY HAVE MERCURY, GEMINI, AND APOLLO SPACE CAPSULES!!!

This Mercury-Redstone 2 Capsule launched for a 17 minute flight on January 31, 1961 with a chimp named Ham inside. If you have 9 minutes worth of interest in the mission this video is a fun watch. (Click the first link if you want to know what those painted yellow symbols are all about.)

This Gemini 11 space capsule flown by Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon was in space September 12-15, 1966. It landed on autopilot to test the landing system. The pattern on the heat shield is from reentry when the outer surface vaporized from a solid to a gas. It isn’t centered because the capsule came in at an angle.

The Apollo Command Module on display was originally supposed to go to the moon as Apollo 18, but when congress cancelled the mission it was used for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project instead. Engineers developed a docking module to let the American’s Apollo join up with the Russian’s Soyuz and let the crews visit each other’s spacecraft.

Here is a Project Mercury Test/Training Suit. It is nearly identical to the ones worn in space by the Mercury Astronauts. (This one was made around 1960 for test evaluation and training.) The suit only weighed 20 pounds, not being designed for use outside the spacecraft.

This is the actual space suit Astronaut Ken Mattingly wore during an Apollo 16 spacewalk. It weighs 185 pounds (on Earth, that is) and has a life support system (the backpack) with 8 hours of oxygen.)

Moon rock. Actual rock from the moon! Sample #10017-9010 if you want to get technical. It’s on loan to the California Science Center by Dr. Buzz Aldrin. Maybe you’ve heard of him? 😉

Now we are at a point where I’m a little fuzzy on things. I tried to be good and take pictures of the signs alongside items I was photographing, but honestly I kept turning around and taking more pictures of the Apollo capsule. I was having a “ooh, shiny object!” moment, sorry.

I could be wrong about any of these, by the way. DID I MENTION THERE IS AN APOLLO CAPSULE RIGHT IN FRONT OF THIS DISPLAY?!!? Anyway, If you have better info than I have please share it in the comments.

Another awesome thing just “hanging around” (I’m so sorry for that) is Cassini. (Displayed with insulating blankets.)

1/5th scale models of the Hubble and Chandra telescopes.

Iron meteorites are only about 4% of meteorites but they are easy to recognize. I kind of want a side table made out of one.

Velie Monocoupe Model 70. The link tells us “The Velie Monocoupe is one of the first planes built for private pilots. Manufactured from 1927-1929 by W.L. Velie, an industrialist who had previously specialized in carriages and cars, the single-wing Monocoupes were built with a frame of wood and shell covered with canvas. The Monocoupe could seat two people, and its enclosed cabin, speed and flashy style made it quite popular.” Actually it tells us a lot more and has some awesome photos if you’re interested.

1902 Wright Brothers’ Glider (replica)

And now we get to a section all about Endeavour…

I’ve read in a few places that the question astronauts are asked most often is how they go to the bathroom in space. I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me. 😉

What is the ROSC? Click and find out!

How do you cook in space? Another good question! (Not as commonly asked as the toilet one though.)

(Did you know that salt and pepper are served in liquid to keep the small specks of seasoning from escaping? These are the things you learn at the California Science Center!)

Space Flown items

She may launch upwards, but Endeavour lands like an airplane. Which means tires. These are the tires from Eneavour’s final flight, STS-134. The main landing gear tires are only used once. They would get so torn up they needed to be replaced for every mission.

Do you remember when that guy had that plan to skydive from space? Well that guy was Felix Baumgartner and he did a freefall jump from 128,100 feet, rushing toward earth at supersonic speeds. It was a big deal where he broke a bunch of records and a lot of people (myself included) watched live online as it happened. (Oh and by the way, he he stuck the landing!) Well, his capsule and special pressurized spacesuit are at the California Science Center through January 12, 2014.

SPACEHAB modules flew on the shuttle 18 times, and the first and last SPACEHAB missions were flown on Endeavour.

All around the pavilion Endeavour is housed in are displays giving a little bit of info about each and every shuttle mission. Taking pictures of pictures has always seemed pointless to me, but there were a few that I did stop to photograph.

And here she is, the lady of the hour:

(The reason this post is so after-the-fact is that I couldn’t narrow down the hundreds of pictures I took of Endeavor into anything resembling a reasonable amount. Here are 15 of MANY…)

There was a Space Shuttle Main Engine at ground level in one corner so we could get a closer look

Fun fact from the website: “Guests who come to see Endeavour often notice that the flag on the starboard side of the orbiter appears to be “backwards.” But tradition (and an interpretation of the U.S. Flag Code) suggests that the blue field on the flag should always be pointed forward, into the wind, as if the flag were flying on a flagpole in the breeze. The flag is painted the same way on many aircraft, such as Air Force One.”

Of course a visit to the gift shop ended the day.

I resisted buying any of the models.

There were other things I bought, but those are the cute ones.

Good pictures to end on, I think.

We timed our visit to see Space Station 3D in the IMAX theater. I’m not a fan of 3D but I really enjoyed the movie. Here’s a trailer if you want to get an idea what it’s all about. Really enjoyable film.

Basically the California Science Center is awesome and you should all visit if you can. There were entire sections of it that we didn’t get to, I can’t wait to go back and explore more!

(Okay, one minor confession: while we did go to Endeavourfest and loved what we saw, there were just too many people for me to navigate. Every time I have fallen in public it has been because someone just wasn’t paying attention and bumped in to me. Even though I had the walker with me I didn’t want to risk a fall so we went back a few days after Endeavourfest to go through the Center itself and see Endeavour. The pictures above are a mixture of both of those days. Just pretend it was all one exciting day though, it reads better that way. 😉 )

My week in photos…

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Well this past week was certainly more eventful than most. All grand adventures, but my body is crying out for some TLC. I think I need a few restful days after this week…

Monday night a friend and I went to a Buzz Aldrin book signing at a local bookstore. There were so many people that we were herded through the line rapidly with no time to stop and chat, but I did manage to take a few pictures of him, and a photo with him. Er… Sorta.

Buzz Aldrin collage

This was one of the coolest things I have ever done, I mean, he’s BUZZ FREAKIN’ ALDRIN!!!

Other photos from Monday:

Wednesday got off to a rocky start, but ended up being one of those days where things work out perfectly! A good friend thought she was driving to Los Angeles to take me to a doctor appointment. In reality she was coming down to hang out at CBS on the set of The Young & The Restless and meet a long-time favorite actor of hers. Timing was critical, but even an exploding radiator and a game of musical cars couldn’t stop us.

We took a little detour through The Price is Right

While my friend watched them shooting, I amused myself.

After CBS we rushed off to get in line for the sneak preview (by one day) of Star Trek Into Darkness. Lines are always more fun with friends!

Photo post: Endeavour on the streets…

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On October 12th & 13th, 2012 Endeavour traveled the streets of Los Angeles to her new home at the California Science Center.