It was a very early morning trying to get to the campus of the University of Alabama Huntsville by 8:30AM, but we were up and ready to go. Despite some stomach issues that prompted two stops on the way up, we made it into the gym right on time for the hype video and hype speeches. I have always liked the idea of this University...within bicycle distance of some major Engineering Companies, with coop opportunities directly in the city where you attend school. It is right across the road from the Space and Rocket Center, and a small campus that you can walk across in about 15 minutes.
I was excited to show Davis the new Engineering building they were talking about when Sam visited, but then learned that it was still not ready. Regardless, it was a good campus visit, and even tho their engineering table was busy and the professors were talking with other students, we found some mechanical engineering students that helped answer all the questions that Davis had. The only thing strange on the tour was the showers in the dorms open directly into the foyer shared by two rooms...haha, I am sure there are many remedies for this, but it did seem a very poor design.
On our way to the cafeteria for the all you can eat brunch, I showed Davis to the "HALL" and could not figure out why they had marked the cafeteria with the giant "HALL" sign. We had a great meal, and two nice ladies that were able to find me some salsa. Then as we were leaving, I told Davis that we need to find a place for a picture. He suggested the giant blue UAH sign right outside the building. But I told him I had never seen it coming in. "How did you miss it?" He asked. Then when we walked outside, I realized that I had been looking at the sign from the other side where to me it read "HALL", but from the side facing the cafeteria, it was UAH. So Davis got a laugh at Dumb Dad.
After our tour, we did have to drive across the street and go to the Space and Rocket Center store. Inside I saw a lady signing books and remembered an email I had teased MawMaw about earlier in the week. I saw that a Jan Davis was signing books, but really read no further in the email, quickly sending it to MawMaw and asking if she had written a book recently. Well, it turns out that Jan Davis was an astronaut, and had written a book about her and her dad (he was a fighter pilot in WW2). We had not brought our poster which was planned to collect astronaut signatures (it only has one), but both of us geeked out on meeting an astronaut. I got so nervous I did not even get to ask any space questions, but she talked to Davis about being a mechanical engineer, but she had went to Auburn. We told her it was really cool to meet her, and she said, "Well, you can meet my shuttle commander behind you". And we turned to see Hoot Gibson. Hoot has been featured on many documentaries, and even more fun, helped train...I think it was the guardians of the galaxy, maybe the avengers...on a fun segment of the tonight show. So we got our picture with another astronaut.
Our fun space adventure over, we did need gas, and even though it was out of our way, we went north at I65 to visit the new Buccees. There we filled up with gas and signed up to get a super cheap car wash, and what was billed as the longest car wash in Alabama. How do you miss that adventure at Buccees? Davis stayed with the pump, while I was in desperate need of their pristine toilets. After looking at the shirts and store, getting a picture with Buccee, being overwhelmed with all the people, we grabbed a bag of Beaver Nuggets and checked out. But our pump was out of receipt paper, so davis did not get a receipt for the car wash. No problem said the lady at the front, she would look it up...What was your pump number? How are we supposed to know that? There are thousands of those at Buccees. So our lady at the front called another lady to the front, who then had to take our CC number and look it up "in the back". So 15 minutes later, after a very strange time for me and Davis waiting at the front of a Buccees, the lady made it back to us with our code for the car wash. After the long drive over to the car wash, the attendants informed us that we could not go into the car was with my bike rack. I asked if I could get a refund, but that would take going back inside. No way! We had been trapped in this place for over an hour...it was time to go. Another campus visit, but fun day with Davis.
Jan Davis became an astronaut in June 1987. Her first assignment was in the Astronaut Office Mission Development Branch, where she provided technical support for Space Shuttle payloads. Following this, Davis was a CAPCOM in Mission Control, responsible for communicating with Shuttle crews for seven missions. After her first space flight, Davis served as the Astronaut Office representative for the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), with responsibility for RMS operations, training, and payloads. After her second space flight, she served as the Chairperson of the NASA Education Working Group and as Chief for the Payloads Branch, which provided Astronaut Office support for all Shuttle and International Space Station payloads. A veteran of three space flights, Davis has logged over 673 hours in space. She flew as a mission specialist on STS-47 in 1992 and STS-60 in 1994, and was the payload commander on STS-85 in 1997.
Robert Lee "Hoot" Gibson became an astronaut in August 1979. Gibson flew five missions: STS-41-B in 1984, STS-61-C in 1986, STS-27 in 1988, STS-47 in 1992, and STS-71 in 1995. Gibson served as Chief of the Astronaut Office (December 1992 to September 1994) and as Deputy Director, Flight Crew Operations (March–November 1996).
On his first space flight, Gibson was the pilot on the crew of STS 41-B which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 3, 1984. The flight accomplished the deployment of two Hughes 376 communications satellites which later failed to reach desired geosynchronous orbits due to upper-stage rocket failures. The STS 41-B mission marked the first checkout of the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), and Manipulator Foot Restraint (MFR), with Bruce McCandless II and Bob Stewart performing two EVAs (spacewalks). The German Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS), Remote Manipulator System (RMS), six "Getaway Specials", and materials processing experiments were included on the mission. The eight-day orbital flight of Challenger culminated in the first-ever landing at the Kennedy Space Center on February 11, 1984.
Gibson was the commander of the STS-61-C mission, and the first of only four people under the age of 40 to command an STS Orbiter. The seven-man crew on board the Orbiter Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on January 12, 1986. During the six-day flight, the crew deployed the SATCOM Ku satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing. The mission concluded with a successful night landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on January 18, 1986.
Gibson subsequently participated in the investigation of the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, and also participated in the redesign and recertification of the solid rocket boosters.
As the commander of STS-27, Gibson and his five-man crew launched from the Kennedy Space Center on December 2, 1988, aboard the Orbiter Atlantis. The mission carried a Department of Defense payload, and a number of secondary payloads. After 68 orbits of the Earth the mission concluded with a dry lakebed landing on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base on December 6, 1988. The mission is noteworthy due to the severe damage Atlantis sustained to its critical heat-resistant tiles during ascent.
On Gibson's fourth space flight, the fiftieth Space Shuttle mission, he served as commander of STS-47, Spacelab-J, which launched on September 12, 1992, aboard the Orbiter Endeavour. The mission was a cooperative venture between the United States and Japan, and included the first Japanese astronaut, Mamoru Mohri, and the first African-American woman, Mae Jemison, in the crew. During the eight-day flight, the crew focused on life science and materials processing experiments in over forty investigations in the Spacelab laboratory, as well as scientific and engineering tests performed aboard the Orbiter Endeavour. The mission ended with a successful landing on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 20, 1992.
On his last flight, (June 27 to July 7, 1995), Gibson commanded a crew of seven-members (up) and eight-members (down) on Space Shuttle mission STS-71. This was the first Space Shuttle mission to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir, and involved an exchange of crews. The Atlantis Space Shuttle was modified to carry a docking system compatible with the Russian Mir Space Station. It also carried a Spacelab module in the payload bay in which the crew performed various life sciences experiments and data collections. When the hatch separating the two modules was opened, Gibson and Vladimir Dezhurov shook hands, symbolizing the newly-found cooperation between the United States of America and the Russian Federation. Later that day, President Bill Clinton in a statement mentioned that this handshake was a major breakthrough towards the ending of the Cold War. When giving public speeches, Gibson often jokes that he ended the Cold War. In five space flights, Gibson completed a total of 36.5 days in space.
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