Graduation Day

I know Madison already wrote about Space Camp, but I wanted to share some pictures I took of her graduation ceremony.  I was excited to see Madison and have a chance to really hear about her week.  She did call me every night, but she could only talk for a minute or two and then it was lights out.  I got to the Space Center early so I could get a seat near the front.  I was able to spend a little bit of time looking around before the ceremony began.  The graduation was held in the Davidson Center, a huge building that houses the Saturn V rocket that was used for the Apollo 11 mission. The rocket is suspended from the center of the ceiling and extends for almost the entire length of the building.  The Saturn V rocket is 363 feet tall (about as tall as a 36 story building) so there was plenty of room for displays.  Most of the building was taken up with displays about the Apollo space program.  I liked learning more about such an exciting time for our space program.

When it was time for the graduation I found my front-row seat and anxiously peered around trying to catch a glimpse of Madison.  They announced each group separately, so at least I knew about when she would be walking into the auditorium and it was hard to miss her red hair.  The graduation started with a speech from the director of Space Camp and then another speech from an actual astronaut whose name I quickly forgot.  I mean, it was nice of them to say such wonderful things about the amazing group of kids who had been at Space Camp that week, but I was ready to collect my amazing kid and get out of there.

Madison and some of Team Calypso at the graduation ceremony

I was very excited when they announced that Madison's team had won the Commander's Cup.  I love to see our kids do well and be recognized for all their hard work.

As they announced the Commander's Cup winners the theme song from Mission Impossible was playing in the background.  I felt like a secret agent as I hurried up to the stage to catch this photo of Madison.  

After the graduation was over, we had the chance to spend more time visiting the ground of the Space Center.  Our first stop was G-Force where we spun around so fast that we were glued to the walls.  It was a strange feeling to slowly lift off the floor and float toward the ceiling.

Madison showed me around the rest of the Space Center where she had spent her week.  I was most interested in looking at the displays about Wernher Von Braun and the other German scientists who came to the States after World War II and worked for NASA developing rockets.  The history of how they survived at the end of the War and made it to the Americans (and not the Russians) was really interesting.  It's hard to imagine what life must have been like for the 120 scientists and their families as they relocated to El Paso of all places.  I've been to El Paso and it's about as different from Germany as it is possible to be.  Plus, I can't imagine that American sentiment was very pro-German at that point in history.

I was tired and sweaty, as you can see by my shiny forehead , so I was glad to find a place to sit down.  This just happens to be a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) which astronauts use to move around in space when they are outside of the spacecraft.

The shuttle was the last thing we saw as we were leaving to load Madison's things in our car.  She had a great week and I was so happy to be back together again.