Anyone who has driven up and down Highway 101 in the San Francisco Bay Area has seen the giant blimp hangars at the Nasa Ames Center at Moffet Field. The largest, known as Hangar One, was built in the 1930s as a naval airship station for the USS Macon. When we got an invitation from one of Damon's former co-workers, who now works at Ames, to attend an event there, we went!
The event was a science night highlighting NASA's latest lunar mission: LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer). The big moment of the evening was watching the launch of LADEE on the Minotaur V rocket from Virginia on a gigantic screen. (The image below is from an earlier Mars Curiosity Rover landing event at Ames.)
We got to Ames when it was still light and carried our blankets to the large grassy area in front of the screen. As we traveled from the parking lots to the grass along with many others carrying their lawn chairs and blankets, Damon said, "It's like the nerd county fair." It kind of was.
The event was a science night highlighting NASA's latest lunar mission: LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer). The big moment of the evening was watching the launch of LADEE on the Minotaur V rocket from Virginia on a gigantic screen. (The image below is from an earlier Mars Curiosity Rover landing event at Ames.)
Damon let out a loud cheer when the Minotaur V was featured, since the company that he worked for in Arizona--Orbital Sciences--was part of the team that made it.
Someone sitting near us had worked on part of LADEE, and I believe that most of the people in the crowd had some connection to it, so there was definitely excitement in the air as each stage of the launch was successfully completed. After watching the rocket take off and then stream across the screen, we made our way to the car via Hangar One. It was all lit up and everyone was invited to go inside.
It's HUGE. It sits on 8 acres and could accommodate six football fields inside. We felt very tiny.
Outside the hangar were a few planes and helicopters to look at.
It was a truly distinctive Silicon Valley experience.
Note: The first two images in this post are not my own. The first can be found at http://www.blimpinfo.com/uncategorized/google-founders-offer-100-percent-funding-to-save-hangar-one-nasa-considering-offer/. The second can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/ames/events/ladee-science-night/#.Um2Kkfmkrzl.
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