Space Camp!

As a completely unexpected byproduct of my road trip to Dragon*Con this year, I somehow managed to wind up at Space Camp for a day. WHOA!

By “Space Camp”, I mean that I actually wound up at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. The facility is a massive museum of space travel history, and is the home of Space Camp, which is like Disneyland for science-y kids.

On Labor Day this year, the facility hosted Rocket Fest, a fundraiser that gives kids scholarships to Space Camp. As part of the activities that day, the Center scheduled several people to speak and/or perform: Marian Call, Molly Lewis, Joseph Scrimshaw, Ken Plume, and Phil Plait. I wound up there with them because, two days prior, Mr. Scrimshaw said to me between drinks of alcohol, “You should join us!” Since a cursory look at a map revealed that Huntsville, AL was actually somewhat on my way home from Dragon*Con, I said, “YEAH!”

Thus, I drove to Huntsville, slung my camera upon my shoulder, and documented the event for the Twitterati.

Oh, and did I mention that the stage was right under a Saturn V rocket?

Family Photo

If I get just five shots like this per year, I’m a happy photobug.

The show was a ton of fun, and I’m thrilled that I got to see and document it. If you want to see the show, too, and get a Marian-and-Molly tour of the museum afterward, you can see all that it right here on YouTube:

I am sad to report that I did not meet any overly friendly robots, and thus I did not actually get launched into space. However, I did get free pizza. (Space Camp pizza is the best pizza.)

Here are a few other choice images, and a full gallery below. You can also peruse the images directly on Flickr. Enjoy!

Joseph Scrimshaw

Joseph Scrimshaw: Supervillain

 

Phil Plait

Phil Plait: Actual Scientist

Molly Lewis

Molly Lewis

Self Portrait with Saturn V

Self Portrait with a Saturn V Rocket

Phil Plait, Molly Lewis, Joseph Scrimshaw

Phil Plait, Molly Lewis, and Joseph Scrimshaw inside a command module.

One Comment:

  1. Dude! Epic road trip is epic.
    I’m going to try and make it to the Ladies of Ragnarok show in Evanston, IL. Even though the talent on stage will be amazing, the venue won’t be nearly this awesome.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *