Almost Ready for Blastoff...

Today was awesome. Our young crew kept adding kept working on asteroids...

Orin paints an asteroid.

Nathan, Pieke and Phoebe.

Ellen takes a break from painting mache asteroids to look out for actual asteroids.

space shuttles...

Vehd adds a window to the shuttle.

Ida uses the jigsaw.

VV consults with Junior Collaborator Quinn before adding the nose to the shuttle.

James, Milo and Rhone were really focused working on their unmanned rover. They cut the heads off of 38 bolts, each one taking about 90 seconds--that's a lot of focus.

Alex and Zazie inside a lunar rover.

and the control panel that will keep our Mission to Space running smoothly.

Owen, left, seems to have detected a malfunction in the control panel.

The control panel.

We also smashed chunks of "ice" for the surface of an ice planet, which we're planning to discover on the mission.

Elliot smashes ice. The kids were so into this, and did a great job respecting one another and the danger of swinging a heavy mallet.

These kids have been awesome at teamwork. They're showing maturity far beyond their years--forming friendships and teams, working with calm and focus, and having fun in ways that include everyone. We couldn't pick a better group of ambassadors to send into space tomorrow afternoon!

Pieke power!

Sean Murray