Out of This World!

Echo, Zulu, Major Hansen, Delta

Earlier this week, we got to meet a Real Live Astronaut!  Mike was reading the news, and discovered that Major Jeremy Hansen, Astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency, would be giving a talk at the museum to a few groups, and that the public could register for remaining seats.  Knowing a great opportunity, and the love that Delta has for all things space - how could I pass it up?   I even arrange with Bravo to have Zulu miss school so we could take him too.

Because I knew it would be a popular event, we arrive early.  We were waiting before Major Hansen even arrived.... but that worked out well as he stopped as he was coming in, introduced himself, shook all their hands, and posed for a picture.  Oh, and being the first in line, we got seats right up front.  

Major Hansen gave a great presentation about space, and had a good slide show.  (Ok, Power-point presentation.)  We learned important things like: right now astronauts HAVE to learn Russian; the module in which they travel too and from the space station is VERY tiny and cramped; because the travel is done in Russian Rockets, they land the module in the Russian fashion - like a car crash on land (not a splash-down in the ocean!); and that the ride in the air-plane that is used to simulate zero-gravity is a lot of fun.  They also learned that if they want to become an astronaut, the important things to do are: do something you truly love (for him that was flying and the military, for others it may be science, or medicine, or something else.); get a degree - probably a masters or Phd, and then watch for opportunities to apply.

At the end, they had formal pictures.  By the way.... we just wore the Scouting uniforms because it just seemed like the thing to do.