One of the best places I have visited was the Johnson Space Center. You drive in on NASA Drive and see rockets. There is a model of the solar system in the parking lot with planets markers. Like Neptune was across the parking lot when we stood at Jupiter. I was again with 11 yr Camden and Grace and Lee. The main building had a shuttle display that you could go inside. There was so much to see. A movie on "What is it like to be an astronaut". Space suits worn by astronauts. Simulated shuttle crafts that you could try and land. I crashed every time! There was also a lunar rover that I crashed too! There was a life sized model of the mars rover hanging from the ceiling.
We walked into a full size space shuttle mock-up, seeing the flight panels and living quarters. It is easy to understand how cramped the area is.. we were fascinated by the toilet...where does it go???
We took a simulated space ride to some wild space port. Camden really liked that! The center was fun, interactive and educational. It is a great place to bring school kids, and there were several schools there.
The best part is the tram ride to the actual NASA part. It is in a restricted area and we had to go through security and get our pix taken. Once on the tram, we rode through the campus like facility.
The first building-building 32, is the mission control offices. We had to walk up 87 steps....to the 3 rd floor where the original Apollo mission mission command center was. I was looking at where history was made. Where Apollo 11 reported "The Eagle has landed" and Apollo 13 "Houston we have a problem". It was amazing.
Right below the Apollo command center, is the shuttle command center. Since the shuttle was still at the space station when we were there, we got to see, via TV monitor, the shuttle mission control.
The next building we went to housed the training facilities. This is were all astronauts and staff learn to work in space. They had the model of the observation pod that was just installed on the space center. Our guide explained some of the training the astronauts have, including living in space and learning to work the large arm/crane that is helping to build the space station. There was a bonus, we got to see the next group of astronauts in a training session. I wish I was younger, I would have so done this.
Our next scheduled stop was to see the over 800 pounds of lunar rocks and soil, unfortunately as we were turning the corner, the tram driveshaft broke..bang...and we stopped. We sat there until another tram came, of course I commented, "Houston, we have a problem" everyone laughed.
Once on the new tram, we went to the rocket building. there was "Little Joe" a test rocket, a Mercury rocket and the Saturn V rocket. Watching the rockets on TV does not give you an indication of how huge the rockets are. As we walked into the rocket building, every person said "Wow" in many languages.
The last part was driving past the Astronauts Memorial garden. A tree was planted for each courageous souls who ventured to space and was lost. As we stopped to reflect, the tour guide played a speech George W. Bush gave after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. It was a wonderful speech. (see Dad I can say something nice about Bush!)
A great day was topped off with a Mexican dinner..Thanks to Grace and Lee for taking me with them.
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