Category: Flying High

Now we’ll see how the Space Shuttle lands. First we’ll take a look at the cockpit, or the main control center, of the shuttle. VISUAL 14 (movie): Cockpit Watch the window, and you might see something interesting happening. Indicate window as it begins to glow. The outside glows red because everything heats up as the […]

VISUAL 13 (movie): EVAAstronauts also go outside the Space Shuttle to do work. When they do this, they must wear special space suits. There are two reasons why.  Who can tell me what they are? [So they can breathe and so they can stay at the right temperature.] These space suits have heating and cooling […]

It’s not all fun and games in space. Usually, there’s a lot of work to be done. One of the important things that the Space Shuttle is used for is to carry satellites into space and release them into orbit around the Earth. Satellites are machines that orbit the Earth and are used for taking […]

When the Space Shuttle is orbiting the Earth, the astronauts inside experience a condition known as weightlessness. They float around and never need to stand on the floor. Here’s what it looks like. VISUAL 8 (movie): Floating Astronauts Can you tell which way is up and which way is down? [No.] When you’re floating in space, […]

Hand out Space Shuttle models. I’m giving each of you a model of the Space Shuttle to use for the next few minutes.We’re going to learn ways that a shuttle can move. In addition to going from place to place, the shuttle can spin three different ways. Demonstrate each type of spin—pitch, roll, and yaw. […]

One of the best ways to study space is to actually go out into space.In 2021, two companies successfully launch rockets into space. VISUAL 0A (still): VSS Unity Rocket Plane One was the VSS Unity Rocket Plane was made by the company Virgin Galactic and launched from a specially designed 2-bodied airplane. VISUAL 0B (still): Blue Origin […]

Most things in the sky are very very far away from us.Let me introduce you to this little cardboard person, Elvin. Show the cardboard cutout person. You can make up any names you want. [If you have the other figure hidden:]This person has a little cardboard friend, Sherbin—let me go get Sherbin for you. Will one […]

And now it’s really late at night, but this is a special night when you wake up and look up and see all the stars of the night sky. It’s fun to look for pictures in the stars. Sometimes certain groups of stars look like a connect-the-dots puzzle making a picture. Look around the sky […]

This activity is designed for early childhood in the show Flying High. Setup Set the sky for today, about one hour after sunrise, to provide light as the audience enters the planetarium. Activity It’s just around sunrise here. One of the neat things about a planetarium is that we can make things look as though time […]