You Have Died. RIP for this Young Astronaut Squadron on the Starship Voyager
All Flight Directors, Supervisors, and Volunteers know what that means for a crew in one of our many simulators. Bracken Funk, director of The Space Place at Renaissance Academy, snapped this photo capturing the death sign's reaction from a 3rd grade group of new Young Astronauts on the Starship Voyager. Bless their hearts, they tried soooo hard and BANG, Bracken, Megan, and the staff and volunteers on the Voyager hit them with the consequences for their decisions and actions. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? These Young Astronauts licked their wounds, suffered through Bracken's hideous Death Time Music torture, and returned to fight on.
The Space Place is well into the school year's Voyager and Young Astronaut Clubs after school program for nearly 200 students at Renaissance Academy in grades 3 to 9. Bracken's 2025-2026 team consists of myself, Megan, and Lindsey. We are also privileged to work alongside our outstanding Voyager volunteers and supervisors.
From the Archives. A Look at the Space Center's Glorious Past in Pictures
The Space Center's First Logo and Stationary. Circa 1990
I had a local artist design the logo. It looks a bit "funky" right? To understand the logo you must understand the original mission of the first starship Voyager. The Voyager was to be a multi-universe simulator. My goal at opening was to use the Voyager for outer space, ocean, inner body, and atomic scale missions. You can see those mission elements in the first logo.
Star: For outer space missions
Waves: For ocean (submarine) missions.
Atom: for inner space missions (body and atomic scale)
Flame: Represents the light of education
That was 35 years ago this November 8. Much has changed since then, yet the spirit of that first Space Center lives on in everything we do today. Our mission remains what it has always been - to inspire new generations of students to look up and wonder.
Carl Sagan once said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." That thought continues to motivate me. I think of it often as I walk into the Space Center and work alongside the Center's amazing staff and volunteers who carry that same sense of curiosity and purpose.
Ad Astra!
Mr. Williamson
From the Archives. The Troubadour, Before the Blog 2007
Before The Troubadour Blog, I put our regular newsletters to the staff and volunteers. Here is an example of one of those newsletters from July 2007 highlighting things from that summer's space camps. Look at the missions we ran that summer 18 years ago. You'll recognize some of them.
Mr. Williamson Had Little Patience During Those Summer Camps As Seen In This Post. Today's Space Center Directors Can Sympathize I'm Sure
The second part of the newsletter has me unloading on the staff and volunteers about attitudes. Looking back on what I wrote, I think I was a bit too rough but remember, I worked nearly 100 hours per week at the Space Center during those summer months. I was always frazzled, and the staff did a good job cooperating - most of the time :)
From the Archives: The Volunteer Manual from 2017
The Imaginarium
The Week's Best Videos From Around the World, Edited for a Gentler Audience
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