Good morning New Zealand,

Another perfect day here, same as yesterday ... big blue sky, not a cloud
all day, and no wind at all. We are all starting to feel more acclimatised
and sleeping better, although with the kids on the go from 6.30am to
10.30pm I can't say they actually looked full of vim and vigour at
breakfast.

Some observations from yesterday:

Emma's team congratulated her on making a perfect shuttle landing, but she
then revealed she had accidentally had it on autopilot.

We saw one team as they came out of Charlie mission at 10.10pm and their
councilor was loudly celebrating Tara's piloting skills ... the best
landing in the team so far.

Stephen commented that it was very hot in the space suit for the EVA, but
you do get an ice pack to wear on your chest. ... very chuffed with his
efforts in the suit fixing the satellite too.

Yin Zhou and Paulina were together as pilot and commander on their
mission, with Paulina struggling to cope with her more dominant partner
... it's all about teamwork guys!

Alex N was excited about being at mission control and thought it very cool
to be singing "Ground control to major Tom" ... not sure that this was any
help to the shuttle crew.

Cameron, Jasmine, Laura, Alex N and Gareth did their scuba, and I even saw
Cameron smiling with excitement and anticipation as he was getting his
dive tank on in the water. Laura was disappointed that her ears did not
clear and she couldn't get down to the bottom with the others.

Ben, Alex C and James dived in the second group and had loads of time at
the bottom. They built a pyramid structure, played with the 45kg ball and
spun a bowling ball on their heads ... amongst other things. One time that
you would really rather be a participant than an observer.

The diving instructors are all volunteers from the Huntsville community,
who support this programme for kids. The team in the pool last night were
software engineers with some of the local high tech companies. There were
up to 6 people helping with each dive session. Maybe the kids could write
some thank you messages when they get back to NZ.

Alex C said they'd had the best lecture so far ... Micro gravity DNA. Not
exactly sure what they covered, but he was very pleased to have had
clearly explained what an allele is. Ben agreed, this was a very good
lecture.

Meanwhile we teachers had a very pleasant, low key day in Huntsville ... a
spotlessly clean city centre, with no one and no shops in it! Beautiful
blossom trees, magnolias beginning to flower and a lovely park surrounding
the spring where the first setter, John Hunt, built his cabin in 1805, to
start the settlement of Huntsville.

One observation I will make, that maybe the kids won't pick up on, is that
you can appreciate what is meant when people talk about a
military-industrial complex influencing and driving American economic and
political life. In the army rocket section of the space museum here, the
following companies have displays:

General Dynamics ... Hydra air to ground anti-personnel rocket

Lockheed-Martin ... Hellfire helicopter launched anti-armour missile

Raytheon ... TOW infantry held anti-tank missile

? ... Patriot anti-ballistic missile missile!

Boeing ... ballistic missile defense systems

BAE Systems .... APKWS ie Advanced Precision Kill Weapons Systems, air
to ground rockets for soft armour targets

And when you walk around Huntsville who do you see sponsoring the art
gallery, museum, arts centre, space and rocket museum?

Lots more good stuff on today,

Cheers

David