HantsAstro - Space Shuttle Crew visited Portsmouth 27-28th June 2010

The crew of the Atlantis which has just returned safely to Earth after probably the shuttle’s last mission will be visiting Portsmouth this month, the first official stop on a UK tour.

The six-strong team, led by Mission Commander Ken Ham, spent Sunday June 27 and Monday June 28 in the city met as many young people as possible in a series of special events, including plans for a presentation to thousands of pupils and students at Fratton Park football stadium.
Commander Ham and his crew, Garrett Reisman, Steve Bowen, Tony Antonelli,
Michael Good and British-born Piers Sellers were accompanied by top NASA personnel, including a flight director and an astronaut trainer following their 12 day mission to the international Space Station.

HantsAstro CoreTeam, Steve George, Graham Green, Ady Jurd, Bernie Nicols and David Woods covered several of the events. Our aim was to provide a photographic and video record of this historic visit, and experience something unique. Astronauts are aordinary people doing extraordinary things, as we were to discover.

The visit started with the launch of 'Portsmouth - Space City', the theme for the 2011 Portsmouth Festivities, a two week, 70 event programme. The Astronauts set off a fantastic daytime firework display in front of several thousand spectators at the Seafront Bandstand.

While they were doing their talk at Action Stations at the Portsmouth Dockyard, we raced back home to change into some sharp looking dinner jackets for the Gala Dinner aboard HMS Warrior. We arranged prizes for the raffle, courtesy of Vixen Telescopes and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. We also donated 2nd prize, a Skywatcher Telescope. The money raised is used to send a PGS pupil to Star Camp in the USA.

Our evening was spent in the company of Toni Antonelli Shuttle Pilot and later Emily Nelson Shuttle Flight Director. Everyone was enthralled with their take on their jobs and the teamwork needed to make a successful Shuttle MIssion. For people who travel at 240 miles above Earth, they were very grounded, and exceptionally charming. You could not want for better company. There were many highlights to the evening, but one was at the end of the evening with the CoreTeam and Emily Nelson, watching the ISS glide overhead the 150 year warship, at Mach 25. A true life moment.

Monday, and very early start meant a Press Conference and a visit aboard HMS Victory for a photo call, attended by TV crews and the several newspapers. We took video, and several hundred pictures. The Astronauts could have spent hours on Victory, but a crammed schedule, with 4 talks across the City meant that sadly was not to be. We went off for breakfast, to regroup and prepare for the last venue - Several thousand schoolchildren at Fratton Park Football Stadium. That too proved amazing with over 4000 excited children seeing what was probably their first Astronauts. EADS Astruim also demonstrated their new Mars Lander which crept along in front of a very noisy audience.

After it was over, we went through our pictures. It was amazingly surreal. The Astronauts, the venues and the buzz of the whole two days. With over 2,500 pictures and a few hours of video to edit, we will show you what happened. Look out for our special edition AstroSouth Directory out next week!