Welcome to Texas! Land of longhorns, sweet tea, big trucks, barbecue, guns, southern hospitality, oil fields, and NASA! The Johnson Space Center, located in Houston Texas, is the inspirational center of past space triumphs and future glories! Come to Houston and dare to dream amongst the stars. Glance down upon our planet from space, touch a piece of the moon, and admire the control room where future space missions will be supported from the Earth's ground. Not only are you enabling your own mind to dream and learn but you are helping fund an organization that will go to infinity and beyond in search of knowledge that will improve our world.
When I was at school I remember being jealous of all the explorers who had traveled around the world, expanding their country's knowledge of our planet, because they had discovered it all. Then I went to NASA for the first time on a school trip and realized we hadn't even discovered a fraction of our own galaxy. There is a whole universe out there just waiting to be explored, and NASA is not only working towards discovering it, but inspiring future generations to keep exploring. Now that is something worth supporting!
Walking through the front doors, faces of both young and old light up. The massive foyer leads the way to endless possibilities and standing there you can feel its importance orbiting you. The foyer, or arena (for lack of a better word) is a giant circle, the center of which always hosts a plethora of brain stimulating games and displays, making even the adults want to join in on the fun. Design a model and make it move, combine gears to make them turn, create a beat in sync with a light room, or see how many beats per minute you can achieve wearing wings.
 |
| Main Foyer |
Not interested in playing games to stimulate your brain? Walk over to the International Space Station exhibit on the left side of the arena. Watch a fascinating live presentation on life in space to learn how astronauts sleep, exercise, shower, and eat. This area is complete with many interactive learning stations. Here you can learn about a variety of space facts from the evolution of the space suit to the impact of various trajectories.
Of everything there is to do and see, the tram tour is NASA's real star event. Red or Blue you get to choose between going to the Astronaut Training Facility or to Mission Control. Both choices are great and either way you are taken to Rocket Park where you can see real life rockets, including Saturn V, Mercury-Redstone and Little Joe II.
 |
| Panorama of Saturn V |
 |
| Mission Control Room |
Choosing the blue tour, I was expecting to go to the historic mission control. However, to my surprise we were taken in to the current Mission Control Room! It was unbelievably exciting to see the real place where all the action happens and a total treat as they only allow viewings of the present day Mission Control Room on weekends.
After our tram tour, we decided to enter the Starship Gallery. Taking our seats in a large movie theater, we were soon watching a brief film on the history of NASA and space travel. Once the film had finished we entered into a fabulous moon landing exhibit. For those who are interested in a guided tour at no cost, live actors bring the presentation to life. However, if you are a more independent soul like myself, you are free to wander through the gallery at your own leisure.
 |
| Astronauts on the Moon in Starship Gallery |
The Starship Gallery has realistic exhibits including a display showcasing an historic lunar rover and model astronauts taking some of the first steps on the moon. Leaving the moon to walk into a vault you find yourself face to face with real materials from the moon and are even able to touch a piece of stone brought back to Earth.
 |
| Lunar Rover |
Having laid our fingers on the moon we noticed the time and realized it was almost time to go. We left the lunar exhibit making our way out to the gift shop before continuing on to get dinner in Kemah. There is so much to do and see at NASA that it can be a challenge to manage it all in one day. There was plenty more we could have done, had we prioritized our time differently, but mozying through enjoying each particular aspect to the fullest was best for us.
 |
| Building Storing Saturn V @ Rocket Park |
 |
| This is Your Jetway if you're an Astronaut.. |
 |
| Face to Face with a Rocket Engine |
 |
| Rocket Engines of Saturn V |
 |
| Little Joe II @ Rocket Park |
No comments:
Post a Comment