7:00 AM SHARP pick up time… Man, is this boot camp or space camp?  ha.ha.  After breakfast we had a three team meeting called Mission Overview from 7:30-9:30.  Then we had the delight of listening to Christa McAuliffe’s mother speak.  Grace Corrigan’s presentation was so moving and fitting for our group.  We watched a video featuring her daughter during the selection process for the one teacher that they were going to select to go into space.  Her interviews and actions through out the video were fascinating to witness, what a true hero Christa was and is to not only the space program, but to her fellow teachers, her students and people of all walks of life.

We then had photos taken with Grace… followed by lunch.  One of today’s activities was to design a patch to represent our team…Unity.  Fortunately, Edney from the Virgin Islands is an artist and took our suggestions into place and designed a gorgeous patch.  Next we were off to practice our jobs on our upcoming Endeavour mission.  Today, we found out what our jobs were on the Endeavor and we had the opportunity to practice them.  My job is CAPCOM!  Here’s a close up of me as CapCom…

Of course, I lucked out and got the most awesome job ever.  I’m the only one in flight control who can communicate with the Commander and Pilot, but I also can communicate with everyone in flight control.  It was a pretty intense role, because you have a strict time line to follow and you have to listen to both the shuttle and ground control.  I think I have the hang of this role…we’ll see how I do tomorrow.  Obviously the person choosing the jobs doesn’t have a clue how much I like to talk…never give me a microphone or you’ll be sorry, just ask my colleagues at Congin. 

After another session and dinner, we were free at 6:30.  That will be earliest release time we will have all week.  That’s when several of us made a break for good ole Wally World (Walmart).  Debbie has her car here, so we are styling!  I was desperate for bananas and some kind of shopping, so even Walmart looked fabulous to me.  Knowing that tonight was the only chance for all of us to network, a large group of 36 ToYs and international teachers gathered together in room 301… to discuss the days events.  Deb, Vicki and I went up to this gathering in our new flight suits and the lighted glasses that Debbie bought us.  Too funny!