When you first arrive, the thing to do is to take the tram ride. It is 90 minutes long and takes you from the Houston side to the Johnson side. You stop at various places and get out for tours of the various buildings. The first building we drove by was the Orion building, Number 17. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture, but there was a blasted tree in the way of one and a pole in the way of the other. The windows say Orion, and it is the next project for space.
Next we went to the Christopher Kraft building, otherwise known as Mission Control. This was a pretty cool place to visit. We had to turn our phones on "silent." They had cameras of the control room of people monitoring the ISS (international space station), but they were in a separate room. We viewed people who were practicing with simulations. What? You think we could actually watch them do top secret work??!!
We then moved on to the astronaut training room. On the way, we saw this. I was not aware you could park your Airstream there, next to a rocket, no doubt??!!
This is Rocket Park. These are life-sized rockets that were used for previous missions. I apologize for not letting you know which ones. I was too stunned looking at this one, the house for this massive Saturn 5. Then we stopped and went inside.
It gives you a sense of perspective with the people standing next to it how massive it is! They put the rocket there after the ending of that particular program and then built the housing around it. One particular note, when we were in Mission Control, our speaker mentioned slide rulers. The couple in front there didn't know what those were. I told her to Google it, lol! Then, when I ran into her here at the rocket, I told her that slide rulers configured all of these measurements :-)
Lastly, we visited Independence Square, where the 747 carried the shuttle. They turned both into a musuem (they are both replicas). But it was pretty cool nonetheless.
Cargo Bay of the Shuttle
How to drive the thing!
It was a great visit! I clocked about 3K steps overall. Admission is $29. If you are a veteran, of course, there are discounts. It is well worth the cost. They are a part of the Smithsonian, and it is a working/learning/teaching place. If you are in Houston, take some time to come visit. It is amazing that we came up with these designs and sent people to space (and still are). I will end with some other beautiful pieces just "hanging around. Wow! Ya'll come back! 😉
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