Page 98 - Grasp English C1+ (Workbook)

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This month’s blog post was written by 15-year-old Mateo from Spain. He recently spent the
morning in astronaut training whilst on holiday in the US.

“Rise and shine!” My mum swept into my room at 5.30 am and pulled open the curtains.
“Wake up, sleepy-head! Today’s the big day!”

We were off to the Kennedy Space Centre near Orlando, Florida, and I was going to train
to be an astronaut for the morning. We were staying with family in St. Augustine, and it
would be a two-hour drive to get there, but I was so looking forward to it, I could handle
the early start.

My astronaut experience started at 8.30 am when I met with fellow trainees. People come
from far and wide to visit the Space Centre, but we all spoke in English for safety reasons,
and one of the criteria for the course is to have a good level of English. Astronauts are
usually expected to be able to speak English well, too – part and parcel of working in
an international environment! The experience is first and foremost an opportunity to get
hands-on practical knowledge of what it’s like to be in astronaut training, and it really
didn’t disappoint. We got to be a part of a simulated launch and do checks to equipment
to ensure our team would come back safe and sound. It gave us a chance to imagine
the hustle and bustle of the control centre on launch days, with everyone responsible for
monitoring their screen and performing different checks.

We also got to go in this immersive spacewalk simulator, which has got to be one of the
best experiences of my life. It was such an incredible sensation and definitely the highlight
of the day for me.

When it was all done and dusted, I felt a bit despondent after such a great morning; it
was quite difficult to come back down to Earth. But a few days later, the compilation of
my video logs arrived. They are my pride and joy, and I think I’ve shown them to all my
friends, family and online buddies about a million times so far. Everyone’s said how realistic
it looked – me with my blue NASA T-shirt, helmet and headset as if I was a real astronaut.
Who knows, maybe in the future I’ll be the first Spanish person on Mars.

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