American Dynasty

Randy Jepperson and Mark Daymont back in the day working a Falcon mission.  (Left) Taylor Herring and Spencer Dauwalder, Falcon volunteers during an overnight camp. (Right) The Falcon Simulator. A Fun Ship but What a Pain to Set Up and Take Down. And a Double Pain in the Neck With its Equipment. Hello Troops!      Just recently James Porter announced that the sixth ship in the new Space Center would be named "Falcon". All you old time Space Center staff, volunteers, and campers remember the original Falcon. It took flight the first time on  February 4, 2001 and continued to operated throughout the school year for the Friday night overnight camps. It was also used all summer long for the summer space camps.  It was decommissioned in 2005 when the Phoenix opened.       I created the Falcon out of need. The demand for our Friday overnight camps and summer space camps was too much for the Voyager, Odyssey, Magellan, and Galileo to handle....

             When it comes to a perfect representation of a horrible year, 2020 stands out in a crowded room of masterpieces like 1929, 1939, and 1865; and begging not to be overlooked is 1968. You see it over there, breathing asthmatically in a dim corner of the modern wing in the contemporary section. Forgive me for not defending my reasoning for those choices, but because of today's focus on thankfulness, let me redirect your attention back to the subject at hand, 2020. There it sits on its weathered easel beconning our tired eyes to travel down its broad covid brush strokes and through the layers of dark sinister overtones. Is there a silver lining framing those tempestuous clouds?   2020 has reminded me of one simple fact, there are things I cannot control.  And because I can't control them, those vexing itches that want scratching are best left alone so not to fester.       I can't control the eventual outcome of ou...

Imaginarium Theater November 22, 2020 from SpaceCampUtah's Imaginarium on Vimeo .

Hello Troops, I remember November 8, 1990 very well. I was nervous. I had doubts. I questioned whether I knew what I was doing and I knew there were others who thought the same.  It was a risky endeavour, something no teacher in the Alpine District had done before - add an addition to a school and start a entirely new district wide program.  Honor's Night. Look at all those earning their one year volunteering pin The vision of creating a 'Space Center' started with my 6th grade Young Astronaut Club and a 1986 Young Astronauts conference trip to Japan. During that convention I met the director of the Kino Learning Center in Tucson Arizona. Her school had a rather large space shuttle simulator in the school's library used for simulated space missions. If she could do it then so could I. The dream was born.  I envisioned our Young Astronauts poster board classroom starship simulator (the USS Pegasus) could have a permanent home of its own in the classroom wher...