- Josh Dobbs, Players' Tribune.
We're out here at Huntsville.
NASA reppin' at Space Camp, so we're setting up, Day One.
We're heading over, learning about space,
and we'll keep you posted with how the weekend goes.
I first became interested in space when my parents took me
on a trip to the Kennedy Space Center down in Florida.
- You guys are in for a great treat this weekend.
First time here for everybody?
[Clapping.]
You're gonna have an unbelievable time.
- And then, also, growing up I loved aviation,
I loved space, and all the wonderful opportunities
that future space travel offers for us.
And so it was kind of a mixture between what I was good at -
math, science, physics - and my passions
in aviation and space.
It might be the lack of dinner.
Might be the issue.
- Ya'll have to have these on before you can put your ...
- I jumped at the chance to attend space camp.
Growing up I never had the opportunity
to attend it as a kid.
You know, I knew it was something I definitely had to do.
You're supported, but normal space you won't have gravity.
But here we still have gravity so it still feels
like I'm falling down, but I'm not.
And actually learned, you know,
what Space Camp was all about, and what it meant and took
to be an astronaut.
- We'll change the control panel
- That's a control panel?
Changing the panels on the satellite,
so we're going through the training for our mission
that we'll have later.
- You need to come straighten this.
- Alright.
- So, we're gonna ...
- Yeah this, this is icy.
Into space we go!
Oh, whoa.
- You've got this!
- The mission I enjoyed most at Space Camp, was definitely
the Mars mission.
Getting a chance to be the commander and be the guy that
everyone on your team looked to.
I named it Astro. That was my nickname in college.
And then U.S. Space Camp,
so hopefully she flies straight tomorrow ...
- We'll see.
- So we built these rockets yesterday,
so today we're off to test launch them.
So I'm feeling good about young Astro here,
but, hey, you never know. We'll see where it takes us.
- Three, two, one ...
- Wow!
- Overachiever!
- And a good shoot.
There we go. There's the parachute.
Usually, the parachute is supposed to deploy when you land.
Mine didn't.
I'm a space cadet.
- That's right, you are officially a space cadet.
- Being in the sports world, you don't always get a chance
to be around those types of people
who also have that love,
and that passion for space ...
- ... Joshua Dobbs ...
- ... and the future space holds for us as a human race.
[Clapping.]
I had a lot of wonderful impressions
and takeaways from Space Camp.
I'm thankful to be able to be around, you know,
people who are also equally as passionate about space.
- Three, two, one ...
- O.K.
[Laughing.]