J

ohnson Space Center

 

April 6-13, 2003






USA flag



We are immediately disappointed when we arrive at the Johnson Space Center because it closes at 5 instead of . p.m. That makes it rather an expensive afternoon with parking of $4 and tickets (with a $5 discount) $21.95). First stop is the tram tour, a 90-minute event. We start by having our photos taken for security purposes. They will also be available later for purchase. The tram carries about 100 people, we are at the front and get more diesel fumes. We go out a gate and pass by “Rocket Park” where a Saturn IV is on the ground. It is about 250 feet long and 30 feet in diameter. In other words, big. When we return from the indoor parts of the tours we stop and walk around it. The first indoor part is “Building 9” where we go to the second floor observation and look down into a long hall to see various shuttle mock ups used for training. Outside most of them do look shuttle-like. The second hall is the same, but with space station training stuff. That is much harder to recognize. Then, except for the stop at Rocket Park, the tram tour was over. It was a bit of a wet squib because we didn’t go to mission control which is the part of Johnson that everyone would recognise.

Back at the center we saw a couple of movies. The first movie is short and gives a nearly realistic feeling of being at a shuttle launch; the room shakes, and smoke (air cooled by liquid nitrogen) comes into the room. The second movie is a sort of IMAX screen and takes us aboard shuttle and space station flights. Interesting, but the photography is suprisingly not sharp and therefore the IMAX experience is dulled.

We ended the day playing on a flight simulator. Neither of us managed to land the craft we were assigned to but on the whole we found it great fun trying. The only problem was that you felt you couldn't try more than once or twice because machines were in short supply and there was always someone waiting.We were a little disappointed in the Houston Space Flight Center, as the tour didn't really get you very close to what the astronauts do. But the museum does have a pretty good collection of planes and other flight vehicles of all shapes and sizes as well as mock-ups of things like an aircraft carrier's flight room.




Updated November 10, 2003