Saturday, October 29, 2011

October 27, 2011

Johnson Space Center

Spent the last two nights in Dickenson, TX in a small park several miles off the freeway .

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Sunrise over south east Texas

This morning we packed up and drove twenty minutes north to the LBJ Space Center and Space Center Houston (the tourist site for the Space Center).   Arrived a little before it opened and walked right in when the doors opened.  (Off season has its’ benefits)

First thing was a tram tour of the Space Center campus.  Several stops.  First was to view mission control – actual control center for all space flights until several years ago. 

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New mission control is one floor below old.  Very knowledgeable tour guide gave a much abbreviated but informative talk on past, present, and future of NASA programs.  Next stop was building housing large array of simulators.  All aspects of space program have simulators for astronauts to train on.  Each piece of the International Space Station, various parts of the shuttle, lunar rover and proposed descendants, even the Russian space craft. 

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Simulators for various Space Station modules.

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Green object in center is actual Russian space craft still being used.

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Simulator of US space craft just retired.  See any difference?  :)

 

Last stop was building holding Apollo 18.  Actual rocket and spacecraft that was next to go before congress cut funding to entire project. 

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One BIG rocket.  Next generation will be even larger.

Back in Space Center Houston we toured many informative displays, sat through several live presentations, and watched four movies (including an Imax).  We spent over six and a half hours there and could have spent much more if we had been more informed going in as to what to expect and had had a plan and had not needed to push on to our camp spot for the night.  The locals have a really good deal available to them.  For three dollars more than the price of a regular admission you can get a season pass.  (Season is a whole year).  I can see using it fairly often as some displays and presentations change.

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Tourist

To complete our day we had an enjoyable (NOT) forty mile, nearly three hour drive into and out of Houston during afternoon commute.  We did fine.  Just get in one lane and watch for the turkeys weaving in and out in front of us.  Sure was nice to settle down in a quiet, dark, spot for the night.



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