Houston, The Eagle has Landed

This summer Doug and I had the opportunity to go to Houston, Texas. The purpose of the trip was for the synodical convention of the LCMS of which Doug was a delegate. It was also our 10th anniversary. So I went along and we took four extra days after the convention as our vacation. A time away from the children, the first in nearly 8 years that lasted more than one or two nights. We were gone 10 days in all.

While in Houston, I could not resist being so close to Johnson Space Center. For a long time as a child I had dreams of becoming an astronaut. Even after the Challenger disaster in 1986. I think that fueled my desire even more. Well, I never did become an astronaut, but I did get to see where they work. It was AWESOME. Space Center, Houston is the name of the official visiors center. (See link in sidebar) There are models of several of the early space pods used on the Gemini and Apollo missions. They have audio devices that you can rent that allow you to listen to former astronauts explain about what you are seeing and add stories of their own.

The best part of the day however, was the tour aboard a tram. It traveled all over the Center. We saw the astronaut training center, mission control and a building that housed an entire rocket used in the early missions. The above three pictures are at the training facility. The first is the ISS (international space station)the way it will look when it is completed. The second is an actual astronaut in training. The third is the mock up of the shuttle bay. All pieces of the shuttle are in this building and are the real size so that the astronauts can train properly for their missions.

The picture below is of Mission Control. This is the actual room where missions like Apollo 13 and many others were managed. We sat in seats that once sat wives, children, presidents and many other special people. There is now a second room that houses Mission Control with much more updated equipment.

These two pictures below are of the facility that holds the Saturn V rocket. It is a 30 story rocket. As you can see by my life size self standing next to it. The rockets that are upright are outside of this facility. The day we visited NASA, July 20, was the 38th anniversary of the first moon walk. They had just finished a press conference. They had a ribbon cutting unveiling the newly restored Saturn V and they announced plans to return to the moon. It was the grand opening of the facility. We were the first tour group to see this facility. For the complete story(and better pictures) see the NASA links on the sideboad.

This picture is of the crew of Apollo 13. Can you name them? They were of course made famous for those of us not around during the original mission by the movie starring Tom Hanks.

This final picture is a fun one that I took for the kids. It is made entirely out of Legos. It was in the Food Court area of the museum. All in all the day was great! I would do it again anytime.

I found out a lot about the space program that I didn't know before. Maybe some day when all the kids are old enough we will go back. Who knows what our space program will have done by then.