I'm So Excited!

I'm so excited.... and I just can't hide it!!

For all of you who I've now gotten that song stuck in your head, I do apologize, it's just that I've been singing it since I woke up this morning!

I am so excited!

Every year the Naval Institute hold a big conference at the Naval Academy and this year the theme/topic is space!
http://www.usni.org/events/2013-us-naval-history-conference

I feel lucky to get to be here at the Naval Academy to be able to experience this and the fact that Ken has been kind of the "point guy" here at USNA helps get me access to some extra cool stuff!

Even though the Government is shutdown this event is still happening. Sadly the current astronauts (or anyone who technically still works for NASA wether they are a current astronaut or not)  such as Chris Cassidy, Suni Williams and Charlie Bolden will not be able to attend which is a bummer because it would be even more epic to have them here. However, there are still so many amazing folks who will be here! Astronaut speakers include Mike Lopez-Alegria, Frank Culbertson, Bob Crippen and more! While I am super excited to see those guys I must admit I am absolutely beside myself about the fact that I am going to get to meet Jim Lovell and Tom Stafford! Talk about living legends!!!

I promise I will take LOTS of pictures. I will also do my best to do some Live Tweeting from the event (assuming I can get my phone to connect while in Alumni Hall - sometimes service in there is not so good) so feel free to follow me on Twitter if you want. My handle is @spacechelle

It all begins tonight with a special reception at the Superintendent's House followed by a Forrestal Lecture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal) by Miles O'Brien.

I'm so excited!!!

It's a Small World

It's a Small World After All... It's a Small World After All.. It's a Small World After all... It's a Small Small World..

Sorry - now that I've got that stuck in your head :) What can I say - after having visited Disneyland and the experience I had at the AIAA Space Conference in San Diego I definitely had this in my head...

For those of you who don't know I recently returned from a trip to California - this trip was mostly work but had some fun thrown in too! So why am I singing "It's a Small World" you may ask...

I flew into LA for a few days before heading to work in San Diego. My reason for doing so was that my dear friends Gillian, Kevin & Katelin were in LA for some work. I met Gillian from 29 Studios (http://www.29studios.com) on our Gobi Desert Astronaut Leadership Experience and we became good enough friends that a few months later I visited her in her home of Glasgow, Scotland. While there I met her amazing husband Kevin and exceptional daughter Katelin as well as Pappy (Kev's wonderful Dad.) When I found out they would all be in California at the same time as me, and I knew we had some business we wanted to talk about, I figured I ought to modify my travel plans slightly and make a stopover in LA on my way to San Diego. We enjoyed some fun time together (including a trip to Disneyland to all be big kids together!)

And no it was not all fun we did some work too! We had some great business talks and we are all excited about the work we can do together. I'll tell you what given that Gillian and I went from seeing each other in Mongolia then Glasgow then Los Angeles - it makes me feel like it's a small world after all!

But wait - there's more! :)

Then I headed to San Diego for the AIAA National Space Conference where I was exhibiting for ISSET & Higher Orbits. (Okay to be fair everything only said ISSET because I didn't have anything printed up with Higher Orbits because I had only just gotten the name etc. legally approved and I don't have a logo yet... but I did talk about Higher Orbits!) At this conference I was astounded at just how small the world of space is! Forget 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon - Space is where it's at!

(Don't know what 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon is? Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon)

At the conference the thought of it's a small world after all ran through my head numerous times...

• I have been living on the East Coast for over a year as has Pam Melroy but we haven't managed to get together yet even though we live within an hour of one another... however I saw her at this conference which was held more than 2,000 miles from where we live!
• I met an incredibly cool guy named Greg who it turns out is great friends with a few of my dearest friends (Stacey & Kevin) in Houston. We'd both heard stories about each other but never met even though we'd lived in Houston at the same time... so we met for the first time in San Diego!
• I met several people from all over the Globe who I've gotten to know Twitter-wise
• I saw not 1, not 2, not 3 but no less than a half a dozen astronauts who I have worked with either as their instructor for a mission or in Mission Control for their Mission (or when they were CAPCOM)
• I met a Purdue SEDS student who is a student of my Purdue Mentor Dr. Steven Collicott (I think I may have to do another whole different blog on that!)
• I met a guy who works in Texas at SpaceX with the brother of one of our favorite mids 
• And literally with almost everyone I met we had a mutual friend or a mutual friend of a friend...

It's A Small World After All.....

I think that's why the space community feels so much like a family. With that said - Let's Make This Family Bigger! Let's keep spreading the good word about space and get others excited!!!