COMM Check: Have you read my original post about the competition? If not, we are no go for launch. Read it here. If so, you are go flight.
Sunday, T-5:00 At 2:00 am, with bags packed and excitement pumping through our veins, myself and four other teammates piled into my car on our way to San Jose. There we would meet up with one other member of our group and depart on our journey to Florida. Unbeknownst to us, the trip would forever change our lives.
Sunday, T-2:00 We arrived at the airport tired but anxious. In just over twenty-four hours we would be presenting our branding strategy to some of the top executives at NASA. Also listening in would be teams from MIT, Wisconsin, Bentley University, Miami International, and Embry-Riddle.
Sunday, T-0:05 Now go for launch, we departed the airport en route to Chicago for a quick layover then on to Orlando, FL. From there we would take the hour drive to Cocoa Beach, about ten minutes from Cape Canaveral, home of Kennedy Space Center. All of our presenatations would take place at the sister hotel of our own right across the parking lot. Only on the second day of the trip would we get the opportunity to visit KSC itself.
I would continue my countdown/up but by the time we landed in Florida our sense of time had gone out the widnow. It was about 9:30 pm when we arrived at the hotel. After we unpacked and made some final touches to the presenation we did some dry runthroughs then called it a night. Events for the next day were scheduled to start 8:00 am, aka 5:00 am for us. Awesome.
Me, Josh, & Sydney
Monday The six of us woke up tired but pumped. Today was the day. It all boiled down to this. We were already proud of ourselves for becoming national finalists but now the challenge was to prove to the judges and other schools just how great we were. Being the only school from California (or the west coast for that matter) we wanted to blow them out of the water. The Cal Poly team was the last scheduled for the day, beginning somewhere around 4:00. After an entire morning of watching presentations that fully impressed us, bored us to death, and dazzled us we felt completely confident when we stepped to the front of the room.
We took our branding strategy above and beyond. It had a clearly defined primary and secondary target market, complete and sound market research (both quantitative and qualitative), in depth analysis, and a full blend of traditional and non-traditional media including promotional programs, co-branding, and media buys, just to name a few. During the presentation the judges were giving us wide eyed smiles and secret thumbs up because of how impressed they were. It was such a great feeling to know that what we were doing was truly impressing them. When the time came for Q&A we were greated with compliments and some pressing questions challenging our work. The team did a fantastic job of making sure no question was left without a thoughtful, educated, and correct response.
Our presentation concluded the day’s events and we later returned for a catered dinner provided by the United Space Alliance. To further inflate our egos, during the dinner we were approached by one of the judges who happens to work in the Office of Public Affair (aka NASA’s marketing arm). She gave myself, the other business major, and the public relations member of our team her card. She expressed interest in having us come to work for NASA after graduation, which was very flattering. Following the dinner we called it an early night as we once again had to be ready to go by 8:00 am the next day. Little did we know it was going to be one of the most memorable days we would ever experience.
Tuesday The morning started off with two official “NASA Guest” buses arriving at the hotel to take us to Kennedy Space Center. Our groups split in two and we boarded with our retired NASA engineer tour guide. After about a 20 minute drive we could see the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the distance and passed through our first check point. As we proceeded futher into KSC we were continually waved through guard gate after guard gate (once our driver and guide showed credentials). The Vehicle Assembly Building quickly went from a distant landmark to a building we were suddenly standing right next to. All of our faces were wide eyed in absolute astonishment and the sheer size of the building standing before us.
While just a mere hundred feet from the VAB it was not our current destination. Where we were headed was called the Orbital Processing Facility (OPF), which is essentially the Space Shuttle’s garage after re-entry into the planet. Before we could enter we were instructed to leave all cell phones, car keys with remotes, or any other device that may emit a radio signal on the bus. The radio signals, apparently, can disrupt the instrumentation on the shuttle. After we were all ready, we proceeded through several sets of double doors, the last of which opened up to what can only be described as a scene from a sci-fi movie. 
Immediately in front of us was a control desk with dozens of computer monitors manned by two men responsible for every action inside the building. Behind them stood the shuttle itself covered in a mass of scaffolding, tubes, wires, instrumentation, and workers. The job of the employees in the OPF is to go over every single inch of a Space Shuttle upon its return to Earth. They must make sure that everything is in pristine condition and fully operational for the next launch.
We were lead underneath the shuttle to check out the heat shield tiles, landing gear, and hookups for the solid rocket boosters. Each individual tile must be combed over to make sure it is still intact and able to be used next flight. If not, it must be immediately replaced or fixed. This may not sound too bad of a job until you consider that, depending on the shuttle, there can be anywhere from 25-30,000 tiles! It was an amazing sight to see considering I was so close I could have reach up and touched it… had I wanted to be in major trouble. We were allowed to spend a generous amount of time inside asking as many questions as we wanted to any NASA employee and checked out a good portion of the exterior of the shuttle.
From there we were lead to the International Space Station Processing Facility (ISSPF) where we were allowed to see many of the new components that were recently taken up by Space Shuttle Atlantis. It was amazing to see the sheer magnitude of these objects. Each varied in functionality from a “bay window” for the Space Station to labs for the U.S. and Japan. The amount of high tech research and scientific development going on inside that gigantic room was simply fascinating.
As if those two stops were not exciting enough, the best was yet to come. Ever since I first visited the Kennedy Space Center when I was in eighth grade I have been fascinated with the Vehicle Assembly Building. Its massive size and the mystery of what went on inside is what truly captivated me. Fortunately, the veil of secrecy was about to be uncovered. The bus was once again approaching the VAB and this time we were getting closer than before. We cleared two final security gates and came to a complete stop right outside the entrance. The doors opened and we all stood in excitement of what was in store for us.
We approached the monstrosity and walked through two “small” doors that were a couple stories high themselves. Our breathes were taken away by what we saw inside. A vast emptiness filled sporadically with rocket components and large pieces of equipment for moving space bound vehicles. The building was designed with massive, complex rigging that stretched from floor to ceiling. At the top there were colossal cranes for moving and assembling rockets and piecing together the space shuttle. As we slowly walked further into the building we found a hidden gem we never thought we would get to see. Sitting there, behind a locked gate, currently being worked on, was the new Ares 1-X rocket! 
This rocket is part of the Constellation program that we had been working on for months. It will be the vehicle that will take our astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars. We were some of the first members of the public to ever see it. The rocket was in such infancy that it was still yet to be finished or assembled. This was such a site to see that we spent close to 20 minutes taking pictures of it and in front of it, along with hundred of others inside the VAB.
Our last big sight to see was truly a once in a lifetime experience. As we departed the Vehicle Assembly Building we headed towards launch pad 39A & 39B. The reason this adventure was so unique, beside the fact that we are some of the few to have ever been on a space shuttle launch pad, was that two shuttles were on the pad at the same time. This was the last time in history it would ever happen as the shuttle program is being discontinued. Our first stop was pad 39B where Endeavor was sitting. This orbiter had a special purpose at the time. It was not scheduled to fly for a while but was prepared to in case of an emergency. It’s job was to rescue, if needed, the crew of STS-125. That shuttle, Atlantis, was on pad 39A and was schedule to launch just six days later. Atlantis was on its way to do repair work on the Hubble Telescope and since the mission has passed I can gladly say it was successful.
The small handful of people on our bus all had our faces firmly placed upon the glass as our ride pulled through the gates and around pad 39B. We stopped for a moment on the small hill that was reserved for media cameras during launches. This provided an excellent photo opportunity and luckily we didn’t stop there. We slowly moved off the mound and closer to the shuttle. We had no clue exactly how close we were going to get but every inch made our hearts beat faster. The bus finally came to a complete stop right at the base of the main blast zone. The sight was simply astounding. Sitting right before us was a modern marvel of human engineering. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to get out but just being there was special enough. We were allowed ample time to absorb the sight and take as many pictures as possible before departing for a quick trip around pad 39A.
This was end of our special treatment but not the end of our day at Kennedy Space Center. From that point on we were allowed to go to all of the regular tourist attractions that visitors pay for on a daily basis. After some beautiful presentations, lunch, and a launch simulator we boarded the bus to head back to the hotel. As we left the center and glared out the back window, watching the VAB get ever so small until it finally disappeared in our sights, we all let the massive events of the day sink in. Every single one of us knew that what we had seen and what we were a part of was so special and unique that it would stay with us forever. They will be stories we will tell our grandchildren, showing them the ancient digital pictures of history. The trip was nothing short of life changing and I feel completely honored to have been part of it.
The Cal Poly NASA Means Business Team
*Thanks to Josh Britton and Ashley Hudson for the pictures.
