Orientation Day!

Our official sign :)

 Today we were given our awesome security badges and went through our orientation at Ellington Field. Safety is first at NASA, so we had to make sure to adhere to the rules or run the risk of being grounded. As we were drilling the holes in the baseplate in order to attach our experiment to the plane, we found out that our original plan of where to place the holes was not going to work. This and the new idea to add food coloring to our liquids meant more changes to our TEDP (a summary of the changes made to our experiment). So here I am, in the lobby of the hotel room, with Wesley and Harrison working on the calculations. The others are busy getting food for us hungry human calculators and finding MSDS sheets. And just when we thought we were done... :) Tomorrow will consist of physiological training and continuing working on our experiment. 

-Jackie :)

Our team (Phoebe, Jackie, Josh, Craig, Gabe, Harrison, Wesley, & Randall)

Drilling the holes (Jackie and Randall)

Let the Adventures Begin!!! :)

Watch out Houston! The Citrus GraviTeam has arrived! :)
First off, we want to thank NASA for opening up this program for community colleges. We are so incredibly excited to be in Houston and it makes us realize all the more how huge this opportunity is that we were given. This next week is going to be one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. :)

As to our day: we had an awesome, uneventful flight to Houston. After arriving around 5:30, we picked up our two rental cars, checked into our hotels, and then got dinner. Our activities start at 11:30 tomorrow when we will have our orientation and get our official badges. :)

~Jackie & Phoebe =)

Tomorrow is the big day!!!!

We leave for Houston tomorrow afternoon! Keep checking our blog for updates on what we are doing. We intend to update it every day! This day is finally here!!! :)

Thank you to all our supporters out there! Our dream is finally becoming a reality! :)

3...

We have three more days until we leave!!! Our team is hard at work studying for finals! (except for the occasional break to update our blog :) Hope everyone out there is having a GREAT day and for our friends at Citrus, good luck with your finals!!!

We so excited! ;)

five....

Time is flying by.... :)

Today was our last official team meeting before heading to Houston! We got all our paperwork finished up, so we are almost completely ready for our trip. (and getting more excited every day. :)

Some members of our team have recently received some memorable awards. Citrus College Tutorial Servies named Randall Acosta Tutor of the Year today, Phoebe Sulzen was nominated to be a JPL scholar and participate in the JPLUS Program, Jackie Deeb was named Woman of the Year at Citrus College, and Harrison Ruiz and Phoebe Sulzen were recognized as two of the college's top 100 students with Math awards. On top of these awards, Citrus chose Wesley Gunter and Jackie Deeb to receive transfer scholarships this fall. We are proud of our teammates and so happy that we had the opportunity to be a part of Citrus College. We are proud to call this school our home and grateful for the recognition given to us. It is a huge honor. :)

6........

Six days to go....

We have been fully approved for flight!!! (as of yesterday) We are all so excited that we have the OK to test our experiment! Now, just to count down the days till we leave...

We had our last fundraiser of the semester today, and it went well. I know we have said it a lot, but THANK YOU so much everyone who contributed to our funds through buying food and donations! It means so much to us to have your support as we head off to Houston! :)

And the Countdown Begins......

Just 7 days to go!!! :)

We are getting closer and closer to our ultimate goal- testing our experiment in Houston, Texas aboard the Vomit Comet. We finished the last little bit of our experiment last night, and we are making some small changes to our pre-flight report, so we can get approved for flight.

For the next week, our team will be focusing on doing awesome on our finals and finding a way to raise some much needed money. :) We are hoping that our two sales this week will be the best of the semester, so come be a part of this goal and help us raise the money we need for Houston! We really appreciate the support. Every little bit helps, and we would not be able to do this without all the awesome people backing us. :)