To finish off our tour of space attractions, today it was the Houston Space Centre – “Houston we have a problem”. We had pre-purchased our tickets and were surprised at the lack of security. There were no metal detectors, they did a very cursory check of our bags and asked Mark if he had a pocket knife in his pocket … if he did and intended to use it, he was hardly going to say yes. ?
We signed up for a tram tour to the Mission Control Centre and had about an hour or so to look around before it started.
We started in the Starship Gallery where we watched a film about the progression of human space exploration and then viewed some of the artifacts and treasures related to this, such as the Apollo 17 Command Module, Mercury 9 “Faith 7” and Gemini V. There was a Skylab trainer, various lunar samples, a lunar rover and a comprehensive collection of spacesuits.
In Independence Plaza, we boarded the shuttle replica Independence, mounted on top of the historic and original NASA 905 shuttle carrier aircraft (SCA) and explored the plane and shuttle. It is the only shuttle mounted on a SCA that the public can go inside. It is surprising how massive it is inside. Inside there are multiple exhibits giving a glimpse into the historic shuttle era describing its impact in current and future exploration. The exhibits explore problem-solving concepts; possible career paths in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and examples of innovation from the shuttle era.
We then boarded our tram which took us into the NASA Johnson Space Centre. We had chosen the Apollo Mission Control Tour where we visited the iconic Christopher C. Kraft Mission Control and discovered the Apollo Mission Control from which NASA led Gemini and Apollo missions, including the first lunar landing mission as well as early space shuttle missions. We sat in the Visitors Viewing Area, a dedicated space where family members and VIP guests were able to observe mission controllers without disrupting them.
The Mission Control is now a National Historic Landmark and has been recently restored so that it is exactly how it looked the moment the Moon landing took place on July 20, 1969. During the tour we watched and listened to the Mission Control exactly as it happened on the day.
Once back at the Visitor Centre we looked around the remainder of the exhibits before heading back to the hotel via Whole Foods for a late lunch. Back at the hotel, Mark &TJ watched Apollo 13 and the girls and I read.
