James and Abbey have started at their new schools Benjamin Bubb Elementary and Graham Middle School and have made new friends almost instantly. We found out that James’ new Yankee mate has a dad that works for NASA in Mountain View and designed a bunch of stuff for the LADEE mission to the moon. They invited us to the NASA base to join in the fun of real life rocket launch!

We are in the hanger being rockets!

Inside the Very large decommissioned Airship Hanger at NASA – Mountain View

We were not fully prepared for the scale of what we saw. At least 2000 people and huge inflatable screen to show the countdown and lift off. They even their own Fire trucks down there.

James is hanging out with the NASA Fire truck.

At one point during the evening before the countdown, there were some tense moments. NASA had a window of 4 mins to launch the rocket when the weather orbit and systems all needed to be in alignment in order for the launch to be a success. There was a spill of some chemicals but James came to the rescue, thank goodness.

James is helping save the day!

The rocket did go off without a hitch and it was truly an amazing thing to see!

The big screen getting ready for the lift off at NASA