Birthday Mission

Wow...has it really been almost a year since I last posted? Sad...very sad.  Well, time to fix that.

First, you have to understand one of the most epic moments of my childhood. When I was in the sixth grade, we went on a field trip to an Elementary School with a space center in it.  They gave us Star Trek vests, put us into "space ships" and sent us on missions.  I was Captain of the star-ship Odyssey and my mission involved blowing up asteroids, getting attacked by space creatures, and negotiating with other alien species. It was terrifying, and awesome, and fantastical.

Next, as you may or may not know, I was in BYU's production of The Winter's Tale earlier this year.  I was mentioning this childhood memory of mine when one of my cast members told me that this place still exists...and that they do missions for adults!  I was like, yes, this is happening.

So...my birthday was coming up and
I decided to find this space center and make a booking. Google is so accommodating.  I found it instantly:  The Christa McAuliffe Space Center. This was soooooo happening.

The day of the mission came.  Once again, I was the Captain of the Odyssey.  And this was my noble crew:

1st officer: Soren Barker
Operations: Brian Randall
Flight Operator: Caitlin Moser
Sensors: Linze Struiksma
Tactical: Ryan Pack
Engineer: Andrew Moon
Communications: Bryn Randall

Captain and crew of the USS Odyssey

I cannot say enough for the experience we had.  It was a BLAST.  It was a 2 1/5 hour mission, with things going constantly wrong.  We had to problem solve, work as a team, and make hard decisions. It also involved a bit of acting.  Each crew member had their own monitor so that they could do their jobs. I had a nice comfy Captain's chair (which I never sat in because I was too busy). A "medical officer" (actor) was also on board to help us out.  We thought he was a spy for a while...but he totally wasn't...and then we felt bad for treating him so suspiciously. Honestly, it was like living an episode of Star Trek.  We had to find a bomb on the bridge and get it off the ship, fight of pirates, save a ship from running out of air, locate pirates and steal back a weapon, and blow up a giant battle ship.  To say it was epic, just doesn't do it justice.  And my crew was just fantastic. There was also a great deal of decoding messages, and dealing with engines overheating.  One thing that's terrifying is that it's possible to lose your mission/die.  We almost died at the end, but the odds were in our favor and we survived. Woot!

Moral of the story: if you're looking for something fun to do with a group, and you're around Utah County, check out the Christa McAuliffe Space Center.  'Cause it was the bomb.