The End, but not the end......

Our final report is turned in...
The GraviTeam is now at rest....
However, the memories and experience gained from this amazing opportunity will be with us for the rest of our lives. The experience of the last 8-9 months has changed all of our lives in one way or another... and now... the excitement of seeing what the future has in store for us!

To those who are considering doing the program we just completed or a similar program with NASA: DO IT!!!! You will not regret it! If you don't have the time, make the time. It is worth it! =)

Thank you all for following our blog and being so supportive of our team. We owe a lot to all of you who supported us because you made it possible for us to have this incredible experience! =) THANK YOU!!!

Here is the link to the 5 minute video of our experience:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3AdHcKlB38

The End of the Adventure of a Lifetime..

Saturday was our day to come home...

We all got to sleep in and have a relaxing morning before getting lunch at Chipotle and heading to the airport. :)

Jackie and Phoebe packed in the car with Jackie's suitcase :)

Craig and Josh waiting in the aiport

Phoebe and Jackie sad to leave.. 

Waiting to board the plane...

Our flight home was safe and uneventful with a hilarious pilot. Some quotes:

"If you are traveling with children, WHAT were you thinking???"

"If you hear metal scraping on the back of the plane when we take off, don't worry. We are just a little heavy today."

"Make sure you remove all your personal items from the plane. Anything left behind will be divided between the stewardesses and you will never ever see it again."

Extra leg room???

It was a busy 10 days with not too much sleep. :)

The plan was for Phoebe's dad to pick everyone up at the airport and drop them off at Citrus, but boys will be boys, and they forgot the plan, so their parents all came to pick them up at the airport. =)

So.. We are all home safe and sound. Sad to have our adventure come to an end, but happy to be home and have all the awesome memories of what may be the most incredible 10 days of our lives. :)

2nd Day of Flight!!

Jackie, Phoebe, and Wesley got to fly on Friday, and it was an amazing experience outside of Wesley feeling sick at the end of the flight.

Jackie and Phoebe with Doug (Program Manager) before flight. :)

The day started smoothly with no missing tools or bad weather (both of which occurred on Thursday), so the plane was able to leave on time. Experiencing weightlessness for the first time is incredible and nearly impossible to accurately describe. :) The fliers were able to observe the experiment, have fun with some academic outreach items, and Jackie and Phoebe even got to do flips in zero gravity. =)

After the flight, we transported our experiment to Professor Riderer's car, and she left right away to drive home to California in order to make it in time for school starting on Monday. After we all completed the program evaluations and checked out, we had to leave Ellington Field for the last time. It was sad saying bye to all the awesome people we met, but most of us hope to be back in the future. :)

Jackie and Phoebe with Fernando, one of the coolest guys at NASA.  =)

When we left Ellington Field, we stopped by Sonic for lunch, and then our awesome mentor took us to building 5 which is another Training Facility where missions are simulated. We got to see a couple areas where astronauts train, including the flight deck, below the flight deck, and the bathroom. (The door was locked so we didn't get to see inside). It was so awesome to get to sit in the seats on the flight deck that are exactly like the ones in the real space shuttle and know that the astronauts train in those very seats. =) Also, since the astronauts are currently training for their last mission which launches on July 8th, everything was set up exactly like it will be on that mission, so it felt extra special. :)

Wesley and Josh in the seats on the flight deck :)

After our final tour of the Johnson Space Center, we relaxed for a little bit before having dinner with some of the other teams. It was a busy and exciting day, and as we come to the end of this awesome adventure, we have some amazing people who made this possible for us and we really want to thank. :)

And... Although we do not have a sign for them, THANK YOU to Nujoud, Doug, Sara, Fernando, Allen, Bobby, Mallory, Jessica, and all the NASA employees who made our week in Houston so amazing. Thank you for caring about us and doing everything possible to give us the adventure of a lifetime. =)

Craig, Gabe, and Randall go weightless....

Thursday, June 23, Craig, Gabe, Nujoud, and Randall participated in the world's fastest weight-loss program (They flew on the Vomit Comet). :) They had many stories to tell about their amazing experience and were giving Phoebe, Jackie, and Wesley pointers on how not to eat it like Craig did (we have the video to prove it). None of the boys got sick! :)

The boys coming off the plane :)

While the boys and Nujoud were observing our experiment and enjoying the sensation of microgravity, Wesley, Phoebe, Josh, and Jackie were having fun making friends and playing with the scraps of our insulation (known to the rest of the world as pool noodles :).  Jackie, Phoebe, and Wesley also got their flight suits. :)

Phoebe having fun...

Melissa, Jared, Josh, Jackie, Phoebe, and Wesley...
(Fernando bombed the photo :)

After the flight, we got to tour the NASA facilities here in Houston!! Our first stop was Building 9, the Vehicle Mock-up Facility. We got to see the life-sized mockups of the international space station and the space shuttle. The astronauts train on these to know everything to do on the inside, so they will be prepared for the real thing.

Next, we went to the Sonny Carter Training Facility - Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (Jackie likes to call it the huge swimming pool). The pool is 202 ft long, 102 ft wide, and 40 ft deep, and it holds 6.2 million gallons of water!!! The astronauts, who are accompanied by at least 4 divers at all times, train on the outside of the international space station mock ups inside the "pool". The neutrally buoyant condition simulates reduced gravity sufficiently for the astronauts to practice future on-orbit procedures and to work through simulation exercises to solve problems encountered on-orbit. Since the first building we toured is for training on the inside and the Neutral Buoyancy Lab is for training on the outside, we got to see a variety of the training astronauts have to go through. (and there is still more that we didn't get to see.)

There was a bit of glare... But you can still see the relative size! It was huge!

After touring the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, we went to the Mission Control Center!!!! This division of the Johnson Space Center directs all space shuttle missions, including international space station assembly flights. The Mission Control Center also manages all activity on board the international space station. We got to see both the Space Shuttle Flight Control Room and the International Space Station Flight Control Room before we went to the Apollo Mission Control Room. Since this room is no longer in use, we were able to actually go inside and sit in the chairs. :)

Space Shuttle Flight Control Room

After visiting Mission Control, our tour was done, so we went back to the hotel, walked to Cheddar's for dinner, and relaxed for the rest of the evening before going to bed early. :)

Our team :)

Today was the day!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that none of our boys got sick on the flight today, but our mentor did. They really enjoyed the flight! We still have to analyze the results and the video before we make any solid conclusions about our experiment. Tomorrow, Phoebe, Jackie, and Wesley fly. Due to the tired fliers, and tomorrow's fliers needing to get sleep, we will share more details with everyone later... :)

Good night! :)

Ready to fly!!! =)

Our banner :)

Tomorrow is the big day!!! =)
This morning started with the usual briefing followed by a day of "lightning holds" which kept us restricted to the building we were in for lengthy periods of time. :)

This is what lightning holds do to us... and Professor Riderer put up with us the whole time :)

After today's flight landed, we took a group photo of everyone who is participating in this flight week. :) Since the weather was preventing us from loading the plane for our flight tomorrow, we had our anti-motion sickness briefing to get us ready for the crazy environment we will be in.

Jackie and Phoebe with the man from D.C. headquarters who funded the flight week for us. :)

During the meeting, the sun came out and dried up all the rain (well... most of it anyway), so we finished putting together our experiment and got it loaded on the plane only to find out the holes we had drilled were the wrong size. (just a little more excitement in our day. :) So.... off the plane came our experiment... We drilled the bigger holes, reloaded it, and discovered that one of the holes was still off, so Wesley and Jackie get to do the new stress calculations for 3 bolts instead of 4. =) The good side of all this was that we got to hang out with some NASA engineers for a little bit after all the other teams were done. They were giving us a hard time, standing around, and critiquing our work, but it was really fun and awesome to talk to them. They are such a great group of brilliant yet hilarious people. :)

Our experiment with the liquids added :)

Bobby and Allen helping us get our experiment settled on the plane. :)

While we finished up our experiment, Randall, Craig, Gabe, and Nujoud (our mentor) all got their flight suits, and we are very happy to announce that they found a flight suit to fit Gabe! (They had mentioned that they weren't sure they would be able to find one.) YAY!!!! =) Since the boys wanted to show off their stylish flight suits, we headed to the mall for dinner after getting our experiment secured on the plane. :) We can't wait to fly!!! =)

Looking good in their flight suits :)

Team photo!!! :)

Another day of fun...

And Another day closer to flight.... :)

Outside the Space Center. :)

Since our experiment is just about done (except for what needs to be done right before we load it onto the plane), our day was almost completely free. We had to attend the early morning meeting, and our team had water duty today (making sure there was cold water for all the teams). After the morning meeting, we had a little downtime, so Phoebe, Jackie, Gabe, Josh, and Professor Riderer all ran a few errands including shopping at the Johnson Space Center for souvenirs. =) Then our team all went to lunch at this yummy place called Tokyo Bowl. :)

Touring the space center. :)

Lunch was amazing!!

After lunch, we got to listen to a couple of really neat education lectures. It is awesome to have these amazing people at NASA share their experience with us and tell us about what they do as well as share with us how we can stay involved with NASA. :) Before the meeting, one of the NASA employees told us that a few people got sick on the flight this morning, so we (at least some of us) are crossing our fingers hoping we won't have the same fate. :)

We had to head back to the hangar for a quick check-in with one of the engineers before we were free for the day. =) Then we decided to eat dinner at Fuddruckers before looking for a miniature golf place. After going to the wrong address, we finally made it to the place and realized we had driven a LONG way just to get to a mini golf course made of bricks and well... not much else. :) We had a lot of fun though golfing and enjoying the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes. :) All in all, it was another great and busy day :)

 

 

dinner time :)

Miniature golf!! :)