From space, you can easily see the large island that the Kennedy Space Center is on.  This is of course, the launching ground for all of NASA’s rockets.  Missile Control is in Houston, but the launches all happen right here.

Seeing a launch has been Haley’s dream for a long time.  She has missed a few and watched others on TV. This year, we drove down to try and document the last launch of the Discovery Shuttle. To do that we got media passes, which lets us go behind the scenes, interview astronauts, and get a special spot to view the launch.  Plus, we get to see the whole thing from the special press section.

Here is a quick update from the front line:

Insert Video of the entire trip.

Media Perks

One of the main benefits of being in the media is that you get to see things a lot closer than you would if you were a VIP or tourist.  We end up seeing the launch from about 3 miles away.  Apparently there are only a few people that are any closer, one of which is the fuel team.  You don’t want to be much closer though as that shuttle is packed with a lot of explosive rocket fuel!

The Press staging area

Upon getting through the gates, we went to the press area.  Its basically a large complex of buildings in front of the vehicle assembly building.  Just in front of this building is the historic “clock” where the countdown is shown.  Oddly, the only people that ever see this are the few media that film the launch. Yet, it becomes the classic and somewhat iconic view of space launches.

Inside the press building, there are rows and rows of tables with reserved seating for all the big news affiliates – CNN, ABC, Channel 2, … There are several live feeds from NASA cameras that are being displayed on a board.  All these feeds are being picked up by the news channels, who then turn around and air any footage they want.  Even media like us have the opportunity to grab the feed, just after it is shot and do with it as we like – free of charge.  Its a great system.

In the back of the room is a table with several sheets of paper for things to sign up for.  Since the media needs to be bussed around the facility, there is limited space to take people to the designated spots.  You can interview astronauts, watch the astronauts come out of their buildings before the launch, you can go place remote cameras in the marsh before the launch … and many other cool things.  We signed up for a few, the coolest of which was the roll-out.

The Rollout

After the shuttle is crawled out to the launch pad, the press are allowed to go out to watch what is known as the rollout.  Basically, the series of mobile scaffolds that are in place to help engineers check the rocket are “rolled away” from the actual ship. Its an amazing sight.  While most people are at least 3 miles away by now, we’re only about 300 yards from the actual space shuttle.

Recently the Untamed Science crew went on a geocaching adventure treasure hunt off of the coast of Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida. Ecogeeks Danni Washington and Diego Meza searched for a series of little treasures, or geocaches, that all had a thermochemisty theme. They had to locate each geocache by following a series of GPS coordinates and using a handheld GPS. But that was just the beginning… In order to get the next set of GPS coordinates, Danni and Diego had to figure out what type of chemical reaction was occurring with the items in or around each geocache container. And along the way, they waded through mangrove forests, kayaked over tide pools along the Florida coast, and hiked in an everglades forest. Stay tuned for our upcoming High School Chemistry series to see the video!

Images from the trip

It’s a rare day indeed when weather, cameras, tides, water conditions and fate bring together over 100 spinner dolphins right into the laps of Suze Roots and camera-squid Untamed Science producer, Dan Bertalan. But that’s exactly what happened today during a wild dolphin excursion with the Wild Side… an internationally recognized professional, innovative crew that conducts environmentally responsible marine interactions. Lead by marine biologist and spinner dolphin expert, Alexa Olsen, Suze and Dan swam headlong into the offshore waters of western Oahu to videotape these extraordinary marine mammals during their interactions… all part of exploring the world of dolphins while investigating the science behind myoglobin… the oxygen binding protein that allows these creatures to dive for up to 10 minutes and 1000 feet deep when feeding. Even with fins, trying to keep up with the swimming pods exhausted our team, but only after they captured some exceptional underwater footage. As you can see, some curious spinners wanted to investigate the film crew and showed off some “spinning” dives right in front of the camera. Wait until you see the video.

Meet the Faces of this story

Untamed Science is dedicated to explaining science with unique adventures stories. Learn more about the crew members that helped shoot this piece.

Dan Bertalan: Dan is one of the film making scientists with Untamed Science.  Besides the work he does behind the camera, he has made award winning documentaries on North American Bears.  These documentaries will be a key feature in upcoming Untamed Science ecofacts and podcasts.  Dan leads one of the Untamed Science base stations in Madison Wisconsin.  Watch a short ecofact where Dan explains elk behavior or …read more about Dan

Suze Roots:“Suze” as we call her, is one of our on-camera hosts. She is currently studying tropical woody vines (lianas) through the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in the Republic ofPanama. Another part of Suze’s job is to be one of our writers, working to make the content scientifically accurate and fun for both students and teachers to watch.  Suze is the star of several of the new BioAdvenures Videos … more on Suze

More about the trip, the animals and filmmaking

• More information about the Oahu Spinner Dolphins and ways that you can act responsibly.
• The underwater gear used in this operation was the Canon HF-11 in an Ikelite 6090 Underwater housing.

Learn more about Untamed Science and what we’re doing to help protect Planet Earth.

Alexa Olsen – Wild Side Dolphin Encounters

Speaking of fish… A true “fish out of water”, Alexa has spent her whole life in connection with the water in some fashion or another. A California native gone islander, she has been an ocean lifeguard for 10 years, possesses a BS in Marine Biology and Zoology with a Scientific SCUBA Diving minor from Humboldt State University. “Lex”, a world-traveling surfer, is enthusiastic about all of nature’s wonders both in and out of the water and sharing that love with others through education, awareness, and experience. She is an Yoga enthusiast and qualified trainer, and her passion and spirit resonate in every trip.

A video from Channel 8 about the Wild Side Dolphin group

Sick of serious science lectures? Well, we are too! Here at Untamed Science we’re filming a series of historical spoofs to explain chemistry concepts in a fresh, new way! Our latest video took us back in time to one of the oldest cities in the US: St. Augustine, Florida. We filmed a short video starring two quartermaster-alchemists (Ecogeeks Danni Washington & Diego Meza), who after a long journey lost at sea, venture to shore to buy supplies that will help them complete their voyages. There’s only one problem. When they arrive at the “Voyagers’ Supply Store” to get their goods, they soon discover that they have been left in the past by speaking languages of archaic chemistry. Lucky for them and their crews, the more modern, supply store chemist (Suze Roots) figures out what supplies they need, and explains the system we use today to name chemical compounds and formulas. This video will be part of the High School Chemistry series being produced by the Untamed Science team this year.

Photos from the Shoot

Diego and Dan entered where few people get to venture in the Caverns of Sonora in Texas, the most decorated show cave in North America. Diego (shown with cave expert Bill Sawyer) even mustered the courage to rappel over 50 feet into the depths of the “Devil’s Pit” where he got to enter a spectacular world of crystal formations and cave features that look like they belonged on Mars instead of Earth. Profiling Sonora’s Caverns was part of the High School Chemistry series being produced by the Untamed Science team, where this time they faced real dangers off the trail exploring hidden parts of this mystical labyrinth that still reveals new sections of this massive cave network. Way to go Diego and Dan for surviving the Devil’s Pit and bringing back some awesome science.

Images from the pit with Dan and Diego

Video from the Cave

This video is not from us, but its one of the few videos we found on youtube that showed the cave to any extent.

More Information about Caverns of Sonora

For more information about the cave, the formations and ways to visit the cave we recommend the official site: CavernsofSonora.com

http://blip.tv/play/geMCgYa+HwA

The Problem

How do you explain the importance of the atmosphere in a way that students will be engaged enough to listen to? This question was brought up by the crew in order to make a video about ‘how the atmosphere works’. The logical answer from the crew was to do something extreme in the atmosphere. So … we enlisted in the best hang gliding school in the country – Lookout Mountain Flight Park near Chattanooga TN.

Lookout Mountain Hang Gliding and the Atmosphere

When you start hang gliding, the one thing you’ll realize is that you spend a lot of time waiting for the right atmospheric conditions. In fact, the flight school is set up around somewhat typical patterns in the weather. We start every morning around 7:45am on small practice hills. We can’t practice all day though because mid-day thermal heating creates too much turbulent weather for beginners. In fact, you can often predict the location of local thermals by finding hawks and vultures rising on them. In the afternoon (when the weather conditions get better) we gear up to do tandem flights high in the atmosphere – or even gear up to solo fly off the mountain!

Crew Training Stories

Jonas’ Story of his first Jump off the training hill

I think all of us at some point have dreamed about having the ability to fly.Hang gliding was as close to this I could think of, and finally the time had come spread my wings for the first time and get one step closer to understanding a birds view on life. Well, that first step was going to be from a sloping 60ft hill, with maybe a couple of seconds of air time – with a certain belly-drag landing but still, it was time for me to fly.

“Clear”, my signal that I was ready. Glider resting on my shoulders, wings leveled, eyes fixed on a target far up ahead. A couple of slow steps forward, then jogging, The glider was sliding out of my hands and the weight was taken off my shoulders. Now running. Even though I still really have no idea what I’m up for, I kept my eyes focused on my target because, well, that is what I’ve been told to do. Suddenly I can’t feel the ground anymore, my legs are running in mid-air and I’m hanging in my carabiner – connecting me with my wings. A strange feeling strikes you when you realize that you no longer belong to the group of animals on Earth limited to staying on the ground. I am now also part of the airborne members of the animal kingdom. My feet were dangling and I could feel the wind playing with my glider. Even though I knew I was supposed to relax body and hands I felt myself involuntarily gripping on with my hands harder on the bars. Even though only a couple of meters above the ground, I was actually flying.

Amazing. I knew it was no point trying to avoid the inevitable belly flop, and only seconds later I was stopped on the grass, suspended in my harness
with a silly grin on my face. My first flight was over. It might have lasted for a full, breathtaking 5 seconds. A small first step, I know, but I can’t wait until tomorrow!

Story of the First Tandem Flight – Rob:

For me the first flight was both frightening and amazing at the same time. To give you some perspective, a tandem flight at lookout-mountain is done by attaching yourself to a hang glider and then attaching both the hang-glider and you to tow-line behind a plane.

The first thought when looking at the apparatus was, “who in their right mind thought this was a good idea to try for the first time?” In reality it is very safe, but you do have to know how to fly the glider when getting up behind the plane. On our way up we hit turbulent weather and the plane was jumping up and down and all around. That also caused the hang glider to jump around. It is extremely difficult for me to tell how much skill it took for the tandem pilot to keep us on track but it seemed like he had to make a lot of corrections. Finally, around 2,000 feet, we were able to pull the chord and detach from the airplane.

Upon releasing, the feel was extremely different. The way up was a roller-coaster ride, and the way down an air-boat ride. I was able to grab the controls and practice turning and maneuvering the glider. I was also able to look up and see the storm clouds that were producing the turbulence at eye-level. Finally, the instructor took the controls and finished the flight with a sharp turn to the ground which initiated a near nose-dive that resulted in a gentle (but fast) landing.
Overall, the flight was so new and exhilarating that I barely new what to say. I could hardly even sound exhilarated because I was so shocked by the first flight. I was on a ride to become one with the air. It was an amazing ride.

Haley Climbs the small hill over and over and over…

You know all those cheesy things people say about how it feels to fly? It’s all true – only better than description can purvey. Not only does the act of flying feel amazing, but the journey that gets you there makes it even more satisfying.

As with many things you just wish you could just go and do…there’s a process. Training for hang gliding on this mountain demands the same process for everyone, but everyone goes at their own pace. The simple look at it is that you start on the ground, train on the small hill, clear the small hill, train on the big hill, clear the big hill, jump off the cliff. Also, somewhere in there you have to read 300 pages and pass three written tests that make sure you really understand what you’re doing out there.

Now, I love a good process – there are few things more satisfying than crossing through an item on a list…but it gets tricky out here. Every step toward the ultimate goal of being a novice hang gliding pilot presents new challenges that you have to not only meet, but consistently master before moving on.

So what if you accomplished a skill yesterday, but you can’t seem to recreate it today? You have to start over. It messes with you – especially if others around you are advancing more rapidly on a given task. For instance, it took me almost twice as many launches to get cleared from the small hill as it did for Rob and Jonas. I needed to be able to have a beautiful launch, flight, and landing…four times in a row. I almost did it the same day as the boys – three good ones in a row – then a lousy flare kept me there until I could do it. Then I just started to make silly mistakes – not relaxed and not feeling my way through it. It took two and a half days for me, my brain, fears, muscle memory, hang-ups and frustrations to really “get it”.

I trudged up that “small” (60 ft) hill with the glider over and over over – at times I felt like Sisyphus, but every flight was about learning something new. Each setback offered more advice from my instructors – translating into better launches, better flights and more persistent, goal-oriented practice on technique – and more FUN! It was mentally and physically challenging, largely because I had to accept my own pace.

How did this look so easy for other people? It was just going to take what it was going to take to really understand – not just check an item off a list. No matter how much I got discouraged, disappointed or close to saying, “maybe I’m just not a pilot”, it was all worth it. It took more than 60 trips up and down that hill for me, and I’m glad for every, single one of those runs. There is no magic involved in learning skills, you just do them until you know them. All the work made it all that much sweeter to hear, “Haley, get off my hill!”

After graduating to the big hill, it was smooth gliding. I was ready to be there, and I cleared for the mountain in a day with confidence and utter joy (accompanied by a jump/hug onto my instructors). Now it’s time to run off the edge of this mountain…and I feel ready. See you at the landing zone!

Thank you to all my instructors at Lookout Mountain Flight Park – Dan, Trevor, Gordon, Diana, Tom and Tim – your patience, encouragement, feedback, and BIG FUN kept me going up and down those hills until my body and mind just knew what to do. There’s a reason why you guys are the best!

Lookout Mountain Hang-gliding

The school, learning to fly and tandem packages

We are going to refer everyone to the official hang gliding website when looking for directions and prices, but these are the current prices, directions and courses as of our course.

Prices

Discovery Tandem – $149 (Nice tandem flight)

Introductory Experience – $199 (Tandem and 5 training hill flights)

Weekend Package – $399 (2 Tandems and 20 hill flights)

Mountain Package – $699 (50 training hill flights and 3 mountain solo flights)

Eagle Package – $999 (50 training hill flights, 4 mountain solo flights and 4 tandem flights)

V.I.P Package – $1699 (Unlimited hill flights, 12 tandem flights, and 5 solo flights … and a bunch of other cool things)

Maps