Day 10
It's nice to see my body clock is now adjusted, so now I'm going to sleep at a decent time,
and waking up around when I want to. I do all the usual things, make a Starbucks
instant coffee, catch up on yesterdays blog and proof read it, and have something for
breakfast.
 |
| It's always good to keep a eye on your bike from your room. |
It's a late start today, as the Huston Space Center doesn't open till 10 am. So I'll leave
early and hit up some pawn shops along the way. They all seem to open at 9 am. The
good thing about this motel, with it just being off the Interstate, is that it has every
thing around it. Tomorrow when I fill up the bike at "Bucee's, you'll understand why
everything is bigger in Texas, but that's for Tomorrow.
I actually have some time before I go, so I start on today's blog and watch some
YouTube stuff.
I hit up 5 pawn shops on the way and before getting to Huston Space Center. Though
I couldn't find any deals, there were lots of Rolex's. A bit out of my price range. I'm
starting to wish I didn't pass on some of those earlier watches. It's coming up on 10 am,
so I head over to the Space Center, which happens to just be down the street from the
last pawn shop I visit. It's at this time I put $5 in my pocket for parking. 5 minutes later
I arrive and the parking booth guy waves me through. I'm guessing motorcycle parking
is free.
This is what greets you from the parking lot, and it is impressive.
To be honest, this is probably the main reason I came here.
Gotta get that selfie in!
Impressive from all angles.
I head over to the entrance and join the line up in. I get lucky and another cashier opens
up. I head inside, get the layout of the place. AAA discount if you have a card.
As soon as I spot this, I head over and join the line. The first tram is full. The second is
for a tour to the old control center. The third is for a VIP tour. Then, they finally get around
to us. We end up leaving at 10:45 am. By this time there is a really big line behind us. The
next tour leaves at 11:15 am. So I'm glad I'm on this one.
The tour is 90 minutes long, they tell you there is no washroom breaks as well. With
the age of the people of the tram tour, someone's going to be going somewhere.
They do a U turn after loading, so you get a good view of the shuttle carrier.
Johnson Space Center History
Johnson Space Center is laid out like a late 60's early 70's college campus. It is a nice
layout. The first building we come across is Building 17. As you can see, it's were they
are running Orion out of. Most of the buildings are just numbers, which, I guess, is a
government thing.
Mission control would be our first stop of the day.
Lobby display.
From the lobby, we head upstairs. 52 stairs. They let us know, just in case you can't do it.
Though you think they are taking you to the real one, in reality, you go to the backup
control room. You can understand why, though it is a disappointment. Though this control
room is going to become the one for the Orion missions to the moon. There are 6 different
control rooms in the building.
They do give you a live feed from the International Space Station Control room. You get a
presentation on the control room. Then back downstairs to re-board the tram.
If you look closely, you can see the deer wondering around the space center.
Next stop is the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility.
This place is big, it has all the modules that are on the space station for people to practice
on. They are full size, so you kind of get the scale of the International Space Station.
Right now, this is the only way up and down to the International Space Station, Soyuz.
It's kind of small.
As you can see by to corridor, this building is rather long and big.
I think these are robots that can go outside the space station to do repairs.
This module is to be placed in Lunar orbit to help assemble the mission to Mars.
Someone putting a outfit through it's paces.
The Canadarm, it doesn't look like it's getting much love these days.
After this, we head back to the tram and board it for the last part of the tour. The Saturn V.
I head over to the rocket park, where there is a Little Jo 2 rocket (above), which was used
for testing the escape systems on Apollo moon rocket.
They also have a Mercury-Redstone rocket as well.
This is the second one that I've seen. There are 3 on display and maybe one day I'll
see the third one. The difference on this Saturn V rocket is that it was flight certified.
These stages could actually lift off. Where about's the one in Florida has stages that were
test pieces. Though all the stages are from different missions.
It's still as impressive as the first time that I'd seen it. If you never have seen one in
person, do yourself a favour, go see one on display.
When I see it lift off, I'll believe it, until then, the Saturn V is still the most powerful.
There is a lot of room inside for the lunar lander. It's actually way bigger than I though
it would be.
That's one big fuel tank.
The effects of corrosion of being exposed to the outside for 30 years.
Everyone remembers these guys.
That's the problem of being second, does anyone member these guys, Nope, I don't.
With all the land they have some Texan longhorns for farming. The problem with the
tram tour is that they rush you through the Saturn V rocket display that you don't have
any time to visit the longhorns.
Me thinks Omega paid for this, they were the first, but there was a second. Why you ask?
Because the Omega he was issued broke, and he wore a Bulova watch instead.
Grabbing a lite lunch, which was reasonably priced. The drink came with unlimited
refills.
The thing about Skylab is the size of it. It is huge!
I'm sure the shower worked out well.
Now on to one of the main reasons I came here, the 747.
They have it set up well. You start up at the top and slowly head down. The shuttle isn't a
real one. It used to be over at Kennedy Space Center on display until they got a real one
when they retired the fleet. So they put this one on a barge and brought it over. They
refurbished it using leftover spares from the program to make it more real. I thought I
was going to see a real shuttle. It is still impressive though.
A great view of Johnson Space Center.
Kennedy Space Center has the Apollo gantry, Houston has the shuttle one.
Impressive, that's I'll I can say.
All the flights that the 747 has made over the years.
Much better seats than I had flying to LA at the beginning of this trip.
The famous circular 747 stairs that I've heard so much about.
Sadly not part of the tour, though I remember it from that great 70's movie "Futureworld"
Still more or less the same doors on planes for the last 60 years.
That's as much as you can see of the upstairs, sadly.
The cargo area, this is were the little elevator was to bring up the food carts from
downstairs. They took it out as they didn't need it.
The same type of spay foam you use in your house
Old school plane, no fly by wire, it's fly by cable!
No idea what this is?
That gives you a date around when the plane was built.
The Apollo gantry has the history, but nothing extra. The shuttle gantry has all the details.
I've got to give it to the Shuttle gantry for the win.
You can feel the history with this podium with Kennedy making that famous going to the
moon speech.
Ah, the gift shop. There is something there for everyone. Except me. Nothing really
stood out for me to buy.
You need a patch, we have patches!
Who knew, NASA socks!
I don't know about you, but when I saw "Space worms", All I could think about is
"Space Herpe's" from "Ice Pirates". I'm still laughing.
Christmas, we got you covered!
On to the Spacesuit section.
The fun part of space travel, still better than the diapers some of the early guys had to use.
You can figure out on what goes in here!
These are pictures of everyone who has been into space on the American side. There are a
lot of people in these pictures. Way more than I thought have gone into space. But they have
been doing it for over 50 years now.
Don't get me wrong, I collect watches. So seeing the above kind of makes me mad. It
makes it sound like Omega was the only watch on the moon, which isn't true. I have a
Bulova moon watch. Still I wouldn't say no if Omega offered me one.
History of watches on the moon.
Armstrong's moon suit is at the Smithsonian, so Houston kind of gets the leftovers.
Well that all for now, I spent 4 1/2 hours there. They do have a VIP tour which takes you
to more facilities, like the 0 g gravity pool. But $200 is a little out of my price range. The tour
is second best to Florida and Kennedy Space Center. But it also costs half as much. So if
you can only do one, go to Florida. But if your in the area stop by, it was worth the 4 hours
I spent here.
Mileage today 34 miles or 55 km
Totals for this trip
2094 miles or 3370 km
I hit up 5 pawn shops on the way and before getting to Huston Space Center. Though
I couldn't find any deals, there were lots of Rolex's. A bit out of my price range. I'm
starting to wish I didn't pass on some of those earlier watches. It's coming up on 10 am,
so I head over to the Space Center, which happens to just be down the street from the
last pawn shop I visit. It's at this time I put $5 in my pocket for parking. 5 minutes later
I arrive and the parking booth guy waves me through. I'm guessing motorcycle parking
is free.
This is what greets you from the parking lot, and it is impressive.
To be honest, this is probably the main reason I came here.
Gotta get that selfie in!
Impressive from all angles.
I head over to the entrance and join the line up in. I get lucky and another cashier opens
up. I head inside, get the layout of the place. AAA discount if you have a card.
As soon as I spot this, I head over and join the line. The first tram is full. The second is
for a tour to the old control center. The third is for a VIP tour. Then, they finally get around
to us. We end up leaving at 10:45 am. By this time there is a really big line behind us. The
next tour leaves at 11:15 am. So I'm glad I'm on this one.
The tour is 90 minutes long, they tell you there is no washroom breaks as well. With
the age of the people of the tram tour, someone's going to be going somewhere.
They do a U turn after loading, so you get a good view of the shuttle carrier.
Johnson Space Center History
Johnson Space Center is laid out like a late 60's early 70's college campus. It is a nice
layout. The first building we come across is Building 17. As you can see, it's were they
are running Orion out of. Most of the buildings are just numbers, which, I guess, is a
government thing.
Mission control would be our first stop of the day.
Lobby display.
From the lobby, we head upstairs. 52 stairs. They let us know, just in case you can't do it.
Though you think they are taking you to the real one, in reality, you go to the backup
control room. You can understand why, though it is a disappointment. Though this control
room is going to become the one for the Orion missions to the moon. There are 6 different
control rooms in the building.
They do give you a live feed from the International Space Station Control room. You get a
presentation on the control room. Then back downstairs to re-board the tram.
If you look closely, you can see the deer wondering around the space center.
Next stop is the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility.
This place is big, it has all the modules that are on the space station for people to practice
on. They are full size, so you kind of get the scale of the International Space Station.
Right now, this is the only way up and down to the International Space Station, Soyuz.
It's kind of small.
As you can see by to corridor, this building is rather long and big.
I think these are robots that can go outside the space station to do repairs.
This module is to be placed in Lunar orbit to help assemble the mission to Mars.
Someone putting a outfit through it's paces.
The Canadarm, it doesn't look like it's getting much love these days.
After this, we head back to the tram and board it for the last part of the tour. The Saturn V.
I head over to the rocket park, where there is a Little Jo 2 rocket (above), which was used
for testing the escape systems on Apollo moon rocket.
They also have a Mercury-Redstone rocket as well.
This is the second one that I've seen. There are 3 on display and maybe one day I'll
see the third one. The difference on this Saturn V rocket is that it was flight certified.
These stages could actually lift off. Where about's the one in Florida has stages that were
test pieces. Though all the stages are from different missions.
It's still as impressive as the first time that I'd seen it. If you never have seen one in
person, do yourself a favour, go see one on display.
When I see it lift off, I'll believe it, until then, the Saturn V is still the most powerful.
There is a lot of room inside for the lunar lander. It's actually way bigger than I though
it would be.
That's one big fuel tank.
The effects of corrosion of being exposed to the outside for 30 years.
Everyone remembers these guys.
That's the problem of being second, does anyone member these guys, Nope, I don't.
With all the land they have some Texan longhorns for farming. The problem with the
tram tour is that they rush you through the Saturn V rocket display that you don't have
any time to visit the longhorns.
Me thinks Omega paid for this, they were the first, but there was a second. Why you ask?
Because the Omega he was issued broke, and he wore a Bulova watch instead.
Grabbing a lite lunch, which was reasonably priced. The drink came with unlimited
refills.
The thing about Skylab is the size of it. It is huge!
I'm sure the shower worked out well.
Now on to one of the main reasons I came here, the 747.
They have it set up well. You start up at the top and slowly head down. The shuttle isn't a
real one. It used to be over at Kennedy Space Center on display until they got a real one
when they retired the fleet. So they put this one on a barge and brought it over. They
refurbished it using leftover spares from the program to make it more real. I thought I
was going to see a real shuttle. It is still impressive though.
A great view of Johnson Space Center.
Kennedy Space Center has the Apollo gantry, Houston has the shuttle one.
Impressive, that's I'll I can say.
All the flights that the 747 has made over the years.
Much better seats than I had flying to LA at the beginning of this trip.
The famous circular 747 stairs that I've heard so much about.
Sadly not part of the tour, though I remember it from that great 70's movie "Futureworld"
Still more or less the same doors on planes for the last 60 years.
That's as much as you can see of the upstairs, sadly.
The cargo area, this is were the little elevator was to bring up the food carts from
downstairs. They took it out as they didn't need it.
The same type of spay foam you use in your house
Old school plane, no fly by wire, it's fly by cable!
No idea what this is?
That gives you a date around when the plane was built.
The Apollo gantry has the history, but nothing extra. The shuttle gantry has all the details.
I've got to give it to the Shuttle gantry for the win.
You can feel the history with this podium with Kennedy making that famous going to the
moon speech.
Ah, the gift shop. There is something there for everyone. Except me. Nothing really
stood out for me to buy.
You need a patch, we have patches!
Who knew, NASA socks!
I don't know about you, but when I saw "Space worms", All I could think about is
"Space Herpe's" from "Ice Pirates". I'm still laughing.
Christmas, we got you covered!
On to the Spacesuit section.
The fun part of space travel, still better than the diapers some of the early guys had to use.
You can figure out on what goes in here!
These are pictures of everyone who has been into space on the American side. There are a
lot of people in these pictures. Way more than I thought have gone into space. But they have
been doing it for over 50 years now.
Don't get me wrong, I collect watches. So seeing the above kind of makes me mad. It
makes it sound like Omega was the only watch on the moon, which isn't true. I have a
Bulova moon watch. Still I wouldn't say no if Omega offered me one.
History of watches on the moon.
Armstrong's moon suit is at the Smithsonian, so Houston kind of gets the leftovers.
Well that all for now, I spent 4 1/2 hours there. They do have a VIP tour which takes you
to more facilities, like the 0 g gravity pool. But $200 is a little out of my price range. The tour
is second best to Florida and Kennedy Space Center. But it also costs half as much. So if
you can only do one, go to Florida. But if your in the area stop by, it was worth the 4 hours
I spent here.
Mileage today 34 miles or 55 km
Totals for this trip
2094 miles or 3370 km
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