Coca-Cola Space Science Center - Transit of Venus 2012 Mongolia

Sunday, June 3, 2012 (5:42 a.m. EDT):

We have arrived in Seoul, Korea, and are awaiting our departing flight to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia!  The flight, though long, was extremely pleasant.  Korean Air definitely has our enthusiastic seal of approval.  

During the flight, we were browsing documentaries and found a series called "The Light at the Edge of the World". There were only two episodes available, and we were stunned to see that the two featured locations were Mongolia and Australia. No joke! So, we learned about the tradition of the Mongolian nomadic culture, specifically centered around the horse. Did you know that Mongolia is the only country in the world in which horses outnumber the human population? They consider the horse to be of spiritual significance and seek to find "wind horse", or their individual sacred bond with the animal. Tomorrow, our team will have an opportunity to meet the horses of Mongolia as we begin exploring the country with our colleagues from the International Space School Education Trust (ISSET).