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Informationen zum Autor Mark Kelly has served as the US Senator from Arizona since 2020. He was a captain in the United States Navy when he commanded the final mission of space shuttle Endeavour in May 2011. A veteran of four space flights to the International Space Station, he is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and holds a master's degree from the US Naval Postgraduate School. Klappentext A team of middle schoolers prepares for blastoff in this adventure from the author of the New York Times bestselling Mousetronaut , based on the childhoods of real-life astronauts Mark Kelly and his twin brother Scott.It’s a long, hot summer and Scott and Mark are in big trouble for taking apart (aka destroying) their dad’s calculator. As a punishment, they’re sent to their grandfather’s house, where there’s no TV and they have to do chores. And Grandpa is less tolerant of the twins’ constant bickering. “Why don’t you two work together on something constructive. What if you built a go-kart or something?” Grandpa suggests. But it’s not a go-kart the twins are interested in. They want to build a rocket. With the help of Jenny, nicknamed Egg, and a crew of can-do kids, they set out to build a real rocket that will blast off and orbit the Earth. The question soon becomes: which twin will get to be the astronaut? Written by a NASA astronaut with four space flights under his belt, this exciting story includes extensive back matter on the space program with fantastic facts and details.Astrotwins -- Project Blastoff CHAPTER 1 JULY 18, 1975 This time the twins were determined. Nothing would go wrong. Scott had stationed Major Nelson, the family’s big, brown, friendly mutt, at the back door to bark if Mom came home early. Mark had laid newspapers on Dad’s basement workbench. They had assembled their tools. And they were absolutely going to follow the advice Grandpa Joe gave them for anytime you took something apart: Lay the parts down in order so when you put the pieces back together, you can simply reverse the process. Easy! “It’s like Grandpa Joe always says: Learn from your mistakes,” Mark said. “Yeah, and since we’ve made so many, we ought to be geniuses by now,” Scott agreed. Mark laughed. “Okay, so go ahead. I’ll keep everything organized.” With a screwdriver made for repairing eyeglasses, Scott removed two screws, which Mark placed in the top left corner of the newspaper. Then—the best part—Scott removed the plastic backplate and the boys got their first look inside Dad’s calculator. “Cool!” they chorused. Exposed, the insides resembled staples, pushpins, and grains of rice, all of them tiny and arrayed around a white plastic rectangle. The biggest piece was the battery, which was easy to recognize and easy to remove. After that, there were six more screws. Mark duly put each in its place on the newspaper. “Should we take out the CPU?” Scott asked. Mark knew CPU stood for “central processing unit,” that it was made of a material called silicon, and that it was the brains of the calculator. What he didn’t know was which piece it was, but no way was he going to admit that to his brother. “Sure,” he said. Scott used the tip of the screwdriver to pry up the white plastic rectangle, and out it popped. “Are you sure you can plug that back in there?” Mark asked. “You mean, am I sure we can plug it back in there?” Scott said. “Yeah, of course. I think. And these are transistors, right?” He indicated black spheres that looked like beads. Mark nodded. “I guess, but they sure look different from the ones in the TV.” Years ago, the boys had watched fascinated as the TV repairman worked on th...
