Mayra Rojas, Baneza Montalvo and myself (Esmeralda Arreola) were invited to watch the final launch of Discovery. There were nine schools in the Pacific Northwest that were chosen to watch the shuttle launch. Our school was selected because of our accomplishments as a NASA Explorer School. I was chosen by my teacher to attend the launch because of my involved with NASA. I’m involved in my schools NASA (MESA) club. I’ve been a participant of the INSPIRE program for two years now and this past summer I had an internship at Ames Research Center.
Unfortunately, there were some problems interfering with the launch. The original day of the launch was schedule to be on November 3rd. One out of the three engines was not performing as planned so the launch was postponed two days. The second interference was the weather and the third problem was a hydrogen leak followed by a crack on the insulation on the external fuel tank, which postponed the launch until November 30th.
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Not being able to see the launch was very disappointing for all of us. However, we gained more than we lost from this great experience. Ultimately, we all hope we will be able to see the launch as the day approaches.
During our time in Florida, I had an extremely educational experience. We stayed in Orlando, Florida for seven unforgettable days. As the days went on, I experienced something new everyday. The first and third day of our adventure was spent at Sea World. At Sea World, I learn the habitats of various animals. I also had the chance to feed and pet dolphins. The second and fourth day we went to Kennedy Space Center. While I was there, I learned more about NASA’S program and I saw many aircraft such as Saturn V, Titan, and Mercury. I also had the opportunity to meet some important people. I met astronaut James Riley and Mitch Currah. Mitch Currah worked on the human space simulator. He was one of the people who worked to bring the astronauts back from the Apollo 13 mission. I learned many things while I was there. One was it took ten thousand people to build the Hubble telescope and while it was in space something was wrong with the mirror so they had to install contact lenses to fix the blurriness. They had made it more efficient to view so now scientist are able to see as far as the furthest galaxy away. In 2013, the James Webb Space telescope will see beyond the Hubble telescope. This telescope will a replacement for the Hubble and will consist of infrared-optimized equipment.
The fourth day we also went to U.S Astronaut hall of fame. This was one of my favorite places because I learned about NASA’s history. The third day we went to Epcot Center. The most interesting thing about Epcot Center was the greenhouse effect they have developed there. Every living organism is grown by nutrient solution rather than soil. They have the worlds largest number of tomatoes grown on a single plant followed by the worlds hottest pepper-the ghost pepper. The fifth day we went to the beach and watched the movie Apollo 13. On the sixth day, we went Meritt Island, we went on a nature walk and visited a planetarium. At Meritt Island we were able to see the shuttle at the launch pad. I saw the shuttle from a telescope and it was truly amazing. On the nature walk, I saw turtles and other wild life. The planetarium shows was on constellation (Legends of the Night Sky: Perseus and Andromeda) and Laser Mania. I also saw Jupiter and its moons from a telescope that is 24 inches in diameter. On our last memorable day we went to Trax. At trax, we rode on go-carts, played miniature golf and laser tag. Later that evening, we went on a boat ride to search for alligators. Then, we went to a restaurant. I tried food that I never ate before. The foods were alligator, Maui Maui, frogs and white fish.
I had an unforgettable and education experience. It was disappointing not being able to see the shuttle launch but I learned things that were life changing. Overall, the most important thing I learned was go after what you want. Many things can happened if you strive for your goal. If I had the chance to do it all over again, indeed I would.
Written by Esmeralda Arreola
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