A Business & Enterprise Specialist

On the 19^th October 2009 I set off on an adventure to top all others I went to America to visit NASA. The adventure lasted two weeks I went from London to New York where I stayed for a day and had the pleasure of flying past the Manhattan skyline at night. The view was breathtaking!

After New York I travelled to cocoa beach Orland Florida. Whilst there I met Lee Archambault who is one of the seven astronauts who fly the space shuttle discovery. He is currently travelling on discovery to the space centre in space and I am awaiting the latest photos of his missions.

Whilst in Florida I learnt about the fatal accidents that befell “Challenger” and “Columbia”.

Challenger had completed nine missions before breaking apart 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission, STS-51-L on January 28, 1986. It exploded due to the cold weather conditions the night before the launch, the extreme temperatures froze a special bonding ring on the fuel tank. The shuttles survived take off but on SRB separation the fuel caught alight and the spacecraft was lost.

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. All seven crew members were lost. Shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107 disintegrated due to damage suffered on launch, the shuttle survived take off but upon re-entry the wing burned through and the spacecraft was lost.

In Houston I learnt about the brains behind the missions and what they do to help reduce the accidents I also had some basic astronaut training which was really fun. It consisted of various things like going on a 3g centrifuge (the thing that spins around).

 I also visited the first ever mission control which now belongs to the military and is about to be demolished although I think that it should be a national treasure.

Also I visited the site of the Apollo 1 accident. Apollo 1 is the official name that was retrospectively assigned to the never-flown AS-204 mission. Its command module was destroyed by fire during a test and training exercise on January 27, 1967 at Pad 34 (Launch Complex 34, Cape Canaveral, and then known as Cape Kennedy).  The crew aboard were the astronauts selected for the first manned Apollo program mission: Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. All three died in the fire. Although the ignition source of the fire was never identified, the astronauts' deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module. Among these were inward-opening hatches that would not open in this kind of an emergency, and the flight suits worn by the astronauts.

I also got to see Aries 1X the first rocket of its kind. It is the first of the constellation rockets which will replace the shuttle program in preparation for landing back on the moon and creating a lunar base. This is in preparation for landing on Mars, in the future astronauts from our age will be on board the rocket to Mars.