Free Falling

I had the opportunity to fly on the Vomit Comet / Weightless Wonder for the third time last Thursday, and I'd been waiting to post until I had photos to show! Believe it or not, though my camera was floating in one of the pockets of my flight suit, I completely forgot to take it out until the last couple parabolas -- and by that time, I decided it was best to just go with whatever the onboard photographers captured of me. They take the best photos anyway since they've got the good equipment!

I've now flown 106 parabolas in my lifetime, which equates to about 45 total minutes of microgravity (compiled in 25 second spurts). I've spent 45 minutes of my life floating!

Of course I had a wonderful time flying, but I also had a great time working with my team of teachers -- four physics and science teachers from Timberlane High School in New Hampshire. The team leader, Steve, was in the top few hundred teachers that applied for NASA's Educator Astronaut program, which makes him a member of the Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers (NEAT). The members of that program were all invited to submit an experiment designed by their students to fly on the C9 and then use for extensive public outreach, which is how Steve, Lou, Ron, and Mark ended up in Houston.

Steve kept talking about how much he'd like to work for NASA, but here's the funny thing -- the more time I spent around the team, the more I felt like leaving my current job and becoming a science teacher! I'm completely serious. These teachers were amazing, and their enthusiasm for teaching was evident in everything they did during their 10 days in Houston. Everything came back to their classroom, and how they could use what they were doing and seeing and learning to help their students. It was inspiring. Their students don't know how lucky they really are.