"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard"
-John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962
Yes, going to the moon is hard. But going to NASA's Johnson Space Center is pretty easy. Just take I-45 South to Nasa Road 1. Hey, they put man on the moon. I'll cut them some slack on their imaginative street names.
Houston Day 5: Monday, April 25
It was another beautiful morning in Houston - warm, but with a nice breeze to keep it bearable. (Keep that in mind - it will come up again later.)
Today's destination was NASA's Johnson Space Center. Jo and Jack had been there before so they said they would join us at our second destination - Galvenston Island.
From their house in Pearland, it was less than an hour drive to JSC. Having been to Kennedy Space Center in Florida several times, it was odd driving past so many homes and businesses, then just taking a left at a stoplight and being there. A stark contrast to Kennedy - which is about as far away from any civilization as you can get.
(And here's a travel tip for you if you do decide to come to Houston and visit the Space Center - buy your tickets online before you come. We saved 50%!)
And unlike Kennedy's Visitor Center, which is comprised of several buildings across it's campus, Johnson's Visitor Center is all located in one building. And the first thing we see when we walk in?
The playgound!
The Kid's Space Place is so massive, they had to put closed circuit TV cameras inside and monitors outside so you don't lose your kids. (You can see the monitors in the lower left in this picture:
Up on top of the Kid's area are several displays to teach kids about space exploration. Here's Madison attempting to land the Space Shuttle. In a blue sundress - just like the real astronauts!
Don't worry buddy, it only cost $1.7 billion. And you only crashed it 7 times. But we will have to take that out of your allowance.
They also had an area where you could take control of mockups of the Mars Rovers. While driving, you only got to see them on the TV screen. The actual rovers were on the ground level, about 50 feet away. I tried to get the kids to have them fight Battle Bots style, but they explained that these were not toys, but instruments of learning to further their interest in science, math, engineering, and space exploration.*
*You don't actually think my kids said that, do you?
The kids also had fun in a mock up of an Apollo capsule in take off orientation. Yeah, I said the kids had fun. It's up to you to determine the scope of the word "kids".
And how do you get down from this upper level science lab? Crew Escape Hatch!
Mock ups of a shuttle flight and mid decks, along with one of engines.
We then wandered over to the tram tour and got in line. It was quite a long and fairly disorganized wait, but they finally started moving us. There were several signs around telling us that we would be actually in Johnson Space Center and security regulations required that all visitors be photographed. And rather that have everyone slowly walk past a camera, they grouped your traveling party in front of a green screen and took your picture there. Then, at the end of tour, they had a nice souvenir photo package that you could buy, showing your family at Mission Control, outside the JSC, in front of the International Space Station - and here's the kicker - standing in front of a Space Shuttle on the launch pad. Which is at Kennedy Space Center. In Florida.
Parents:
Hey kids - remember that time we went to Houston and stood in front of something in Flordia?
Kids:
Time to put dad in a home, he's clearly senile.
So, "security" picture taken, we moved to another queue area, where we had to have our bags searched (just like they did when we entered the Visitor's Center) and go through a metal detector before getting on the tram.
We waited to get everyone loaded, then took off for JSC. While you know exactly where you're going on the Kennedy Space Center tour, the Johnson tour can change destination based on current activity at the center. Our first stop was Historic Mission Control. This is the place that was in charge of all space flight activity from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions all the way through the first half or so of the Space Shuttle missions. A new, more technologically advanced Mission Control was built and this was dedicated as National Historic Landmark.
We had time to watch a short film about the Space Program and Mission Control, but we were then rushed out before we could get many pictures.
Can you imagine trying to land a man on the moon with a rotary phone?
The sign is washed out in the glare, but that is the Flight Director's station.
The outside of Mission Control. Both the old and new ones are in the same building.
Our next stop was the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. This is a very large room that has exact duplicates of every node the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and any other cool toys NASA is currently playing with. They use this not only for training astronauts, but whenever they want to do something to the space station, they test it out here first. Because you don't want to get up there to install a new science rack and realize you built the rack and inch too large.
Remember those "other cool toys Nasa is playing with?" I think these qualify, but I don't have a clue as to what they are. Let's call them bionic 4-wheeler man and giant space spider.
The last stop on the tour was their Saturn V building, along with several other rockets from generations past.
Hey kids! This thing cost $185 million (adjusted for inflation, 2011 cost is $1.11 billion) Pretty impressive piece of history, huh?
As you boarded the tram to go back to the visitor center, the Saturn V building is on your left. On your right is...the rest of Texas.
The tram guide explained that NASA had donated that land to the Houston Public School's Future Farmers of America program.
We arrived back at the center, and like any good tourist, bought the photo package. It was pretty cool, though, because they did some kind of 3D treatment to the photo of in front of the ISS.
We grabbed lunch in their cafeteria the explored a bit more. Madison will now demonstrate exactly how to go to the bathroom in space.
And since Evan did such a bang up job on the shuttle landing simulator, we decided to give him a crash course on the real thing. (Check that out - two puns for the price one!)
Finally, we strolled through the gift shop, where these caught my eye. Yes, those are official NASA/Johnson Space Center compasses. Because when you're in space and outside of Earth's magnetic field, you always need to know which way is North.
Coming Up Next: Galveston
