Johnson Space Center was so cool

Wow, What a cool day. I got to the Johnson Space Center about an hour and a half early. I figured that would give me time to see some of the things they had on display in the main building. I was a bit surprised that they had very few historic items on display. Mostly they had a lot of activities for kids, some of them were for big kids too. One of the first things I did was lay on a bed of nails, Real nails. it was amazingly comfortable. After that I went to a flight simulator and crashed the shuttle twice. I hung around and did a few other things until it was time for the level 9 tour to start.

Fabrication Lab

The first stop on the tour was lunch in the cafeteria where the employees and astronauts eat. Then we went to the fabrication lab. this is where thy build prototypes of things that could end up being used in future missions. Right now they are working on designing inflatable living quarters to be used when we land on other planets. This area is not on the normal tour.

Neutral Buoyancy Training Lab

Next was the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. This is a pool that is 200' x 110' and 40' deep and in the pool is a full size mock-up of the International Space Station. This is used for astronauts to train in an almost weightless atmosphere. At the bottom of the picture you can see two astronauts that were just pulled out of the pool and are getting out of their suits. Again, this is an area you would not see on the normal tour.

Full Size Mock-up of The ISS

The full size mock-up lab is just what it says a full size mock-up of the ISS. Every module that is part of the ISS is in this room. Normally the level 9 tour would be able to go down to the main floor, But because the shuttle is in space they only want employees on the floor and all tours must stay up in the observation area.

Mission Control

One of the coolest parts of the tour was to be able to sit in the observation room for mission control. This is the room where they are controlling and monitoring every aspect of the current shuttle mission. Again, you don't see this on the regular tour.

Historic Mission Control

Then there is the Historic Mission Control. This is the room where they ran all of the Apollo Missions Including the Apollo 13 mission that happened 40 years earlier to the day. The other cool thing was while we were taking turns having our pictures taken in the Flight Directors chair, the regular tour was in the observation room watching us, because the regular tour isn't allowed in the main room.

Saturn V Rocket

The last stop on the tour was to see the restored Saturn V Rocket. This was originally going to be the launch vehicle for Apollo 18. After the last few Apollo Missions were canceled this rocket just sat in a field at this location for close to 30 years till NASA decided to restore it and set it up as a display. This is one of 3 Saturn V rockets on display. There is one at the Kennedy Space center in Florida, and one displayed vertically in Huntsville Alabama.

The tour ended around 4:45, I made a quick stop at the gift shop then headed east of Houston for about an hour. Tomorrow I continue east heading towards my brothers house near Atlanta.

Kugs

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Kugs on the road on April 13, 2010 from Houston, United States

from the travel blog: Texas 2K10

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