We were up good and early and made our way over to the NASA Space Centre (Center in American).. It opened at 10am and we arrived shortly after. We wanted to be sure to get our moneys worth out of it, but as it turns out it wasn't as expensive as we expected. Only $18 a head and I can honestly say, it was cheap at that. The term "value for money" definitely applies here. When we got inside we weren't really sure what to do first. There was loads of different shows and presentations going on, and we went into one called "Blast off".. It was very interesting, but I don't think I'll write a detailed account of it because I'm sure you can gather from the name what it was about. After the show we wandered around a few exhibits while we waited for the next NASA Tram Tour at 12pm. The 90 minute tour was very cool. I'd have paid $18 for this alone.. Our first stop was at a pretty average looking building. Looks can be deceiving though as this building is very special indeed... Mission Control. This is the building where every NASA space mission, past and present is controlled from. We were led inside and up 87 steps (we didn't count, we were told). We entered a small room and found ourselves looking down into the heart of the building. This was the original Mission Control, the room where every mission up until 1996 was controlled from. This was the room where those
famous words were heard for the very first time.. "This is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind".. The new Mission Control room is right next door but we only got to see a live feed of that on a TV screen. When we were finished there we hopped back on the tram and were taken across the campus to another building which serves as an astronaut training centre. This building is full of live sized and realistic simulators, designed to prepare astronauts for the challenges they'll face from the minute they "blast off" right up until the moment they come back down to earth. We were looking down over a bunch of highly qualified people going about they're every day work.
There was even some engineers working on a prototype of the next Rover vehicle. The plan is to use the Rover to transport astronauts on the surface of Mars. Realistically however, it's going to be used on the next mission to the moon, scheduled for December 2020 (You heard it here first). At this point in the tour we're thinking, this is unreal! But the last stop really blew us away.. We were taken inside a huge warehouse to see an actual space rocket! It was the Apollo 18, which sadly never actually made it into space due to budget cuts. This thing is bloody huge though, bigger than the biggest jumbo jet and scary as hell looking!! Right at the very tip of the rocket is a tiny capsule where the astronauts are meant to sit.. Personally I'd feel a tad claustrophobic strapped into that thing with such an amount of power right under me. We finished back at the visitors centre and found ourselves with plenty left to do and see. There is too many things to write about, but we weren't out of the place until damn near closing time. Trust us to spend the whole day indoors when the sun was melting the tar outside. But we all agreed that it was a day very well spent, and hey... the sun will be melting the tar again tomorrow.
We were up good and early and made our way over to the NASA Space Centre (Center in American).. It opened at 10am and we arrived shortly after. We wanted to be sure to get our moneys worth out of it, but as it turns out it wasn't as expensive as we expected. Only $18 a head and I can honestly say, it was cheap at that. The term "value for money" definitely applies here. When we got inside we weren't really sure what to do first. There was loads of different shows and presentations going on, and we went into one called "Blast off".. It was very interesting, but I don't think I'll write a detailed account of it because I'm sure you can gather from the name what it was about. After the show we wandered around a few exhibits while we waited for the next NASA Tram Tour at 12pm. The 90 minute tour was very cool. I'd have paid $18 for this alone.. Our first stop was at a pretty average looking building. Looks can be deceiving though as this building is very special indeed... Mission Control. This is the building where every NASA space mission, past and present is controlled from. We were led inside and up 87 steps (we didn't count, we were told). We entered a small room and found ourselves looking down into the heart of the building. This was the original Mission Control, the room where every mission up until 1996 was controlled from. This was the room where those 
famous words were heard for the very first time.. "This is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind".. The new Mission Control room is right next door but we only got to see a live feed of that on a TV screen. When we were finished there we hopped back on the tram and were taken across the campus to another building which serves as an astronaut training centre. This building is full of live sized and realistic simulators, designed to prepare astronauts for the challenges they'll face from the minute they "blast off" right up until the moment they come back down to earth. We were looking down over a bunch of highly qualified people going about they're every day work. 
There was even some engineers working on a prototype of the next Rover vehicle. The plan is to use the Rover to transport astronauts on the surface of Mars. Realistically however, it's going to be used on the next mission to the moon, scheduled for December 2020 (You heard it here first). At this point in the tour we're thinking, this is unreal! But the last stop really blew us away.. We were taken inside a huge warehouse to see an actual space rocket! It was the Apollo 18, which sadly never actually made it into space due to budget cuts. This thing is bloody huge though, bigger than the biggest jumbo jet and scary as hell looking!! Right at the very tip of the rocket is a tiny capsule where the astronauts are meant to sit.. Personally I'd feel a tad claustrophobic strapped into that thing with such an amount of power right under me. We finished back at the visitors centre and found ourselves with plenty left to do and see. There is too many things to write about, but we weren't out of the place until damn near closing time. Trust us to spend the whole day indoors when the sun was melting the tar outside. But we all agreed that it was a day very well spent, and hey... the sun will be melting the tar again tomorrow.
1 comment:
I've always wanted to go to nasa...really cool pics!
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