NASA at Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas, Feb 17, 2009

Tuesday, February-17-09, we headed north on I-45 to the Johnson Space Center on NASA Road 1 just south of Houston, Texas. The tour explained everything about the space program since its beginning up to the present. The tram tour took us to the original Mission Control. The narrator explained that present day Mission Control was in the very next room and the orbiting space station control was one floor beneath us. We saw the mock up area housing a replica of the orbiting space station and the Canada Arm. This is where astronauts practice the skills they need for space travel. Then we moved on to a huge building holding a full size replica of the Saturn VII, including the rusted original nosecone. After returning to the main building, we toured the area and saw an IMAX movie highlighting the history of space travel from the beginning with the Russians to the present orbiting station. The next step was a tour of scenes and more mock ups, ending with a walk through a space ship. We actually got to touch an actual stone from the moon. Paul then tried his hand at landing a space shuttle, a simulator and was successful after crash landing a few times!

Later….