Day 2:

If I had to pick one word to describe my first day at the Johnson Space Center it would be- AWESOME!!!! Susan picked us up from the hotel and took us to get our badges. She also gave us a notebook and a space shuttle pen which was pretty neat. After that we met up with Karen who was an astronaut on the STS-214. She showed us around the Space Vehicle Mockups Facility. While in the SVMF we got to see how small and cramped a Soyuz was, and she also showed us the living conditions the astronauts deal with in the space shuttles. Next Timothy Hall the FAO showed us the Mission Control Centers one of which was an exact replica of the one in the Apollo 13 movie. He told us a lot of interesting information, and explained to us all the different jobs in the MCC and how they all play an important role in the success of the different space missions. Finally lunch came and we ate some good food in the cafeteria. We were greeted by Kayla who was a senior in high school just like me. Except she was an intern for NASA and one of the people who we interviewed with when trying to win the contest. We also were surprised by having the privilege of eating our lunch with Stephanie Wilson as our special guest! Just the day before I told Ms. Munoz how I wanted the poster she had of Stephanie to hang on my wall to inspire me to reach for my dreams. And there she was in the flesh! Eating her lunch, while answering a bunch of questions from us. She was such an inspiration to me being an African American female astronaut, and she’s originally from up North just like me. She told us about how she was preparing for her 3^rd mission! After lunch, Linda the Robotic instructor showed us a simulator she uses to train the astronauts on how to use the robotic arm. Last but certainly not least we got the pleasure of meeting Sam. He took us on a motion simulator where we got to launch and land the shuttle simulator. It was a fun filled day topped off with dinner at olive Garden with Jenny, the coolest PO ever!