As many of you may know, the space shuttle Discovery recently retired to the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, located in the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C. Discovery, perched a top a NASA 747, flew from Cape Canaveral to D.C. for it's last flight, touring the city and making a very exciting day in the D.C. area!
I thought I was going to miss it - I had my last pregnancy appointment that morning at almost the exact time it was scheduled to arrive.
Luckily, thanks to being early, I was able to make it all the way out to Dulles Airport (well, a highway overpass overlooking the airport!) to wait with hundreds of others, hoping for a fly over.
I always loved the idea of being an astronaut, but I never excelled at math or science, so that wasn't going to work! I was always jealous of my brother, who had been to space camp when I was younger - but I never got to do anything like that, either!
Instead, I rode Mission: Space. The only ride I've ever seen that included barf bags. I rode it back in 2005, before it had options - there was no "green vs. orange" it was just "go."
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| Image from MSNBC.com
Borrowing techniques from NASA, this simulator uses a multiple arm centrifuge to give the allusion of accelerating. You're spinning and tilting, getting up to 2.5 G's of gravity (2.5x your weight pushed against you) all while watching a screen that's shooting you to the moon.
I can still remember thinking "if this goes on for 5 more seconds, I'm going to need one of those bags" and walking off a bit woozy. Everyone walking off looked slightly green and headed for the water fountains. With my friend Jen, we had to sit and relax and couldn't eat for a good while after.
In the times I've visited since that one occasion (and that's a lot!) I've either successfully convinced the others that it's just not worth the pain or enjoyed some people watching time while waiting for others.
This is one attraction that I don't plan to ever ride again - and that's a short list. Actually, this may be the only attraction on that list.
What attractions do you avoid? Have you had a similar experience or do you enjoy this ride? I'd love to hear your experience, either in comments below or on the facebook page!
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I'm with you. I rode Green and was fine but my husband convinced me to try Orange. Never again. And it is really cool that you got to see the Discovery.
ReplyDeleteI went on this during my honeymoon in 2006 and actually really like it. The only part I didn't like was since we were going so fast, my cheeks went so far back that the flap of my skin hitting my own face was painful.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend test ride this for me. His first words when we met afterwards "you would have barfed". No Mission Space for me. I rode Aerosmith's Rock 'N Roller Coaster once, and barfed 20 minutes after I got off the ride. No more of that for me!
ReplyDeleteAnd Expedition Everest, nearly barfed, enough of that.
Also the Star Wars ride is a no no for me as well. And the old Body Wars.