NOMADS Friends at Houston Space Center

Yesterday we went to see the Houston Space Center with some NOMADS friends. It is about 25 miles from Galveston Island and only a short drive.

We saved $3 buying our tickets online and printing them. We got there about 10:45 AM and it was not too crowded.

Space Center Houston is the official name of the visitors center of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. It covers over 1,600 acres and employs over 14,000 people including civilians and contractors.It has a number of attractions including a Tram Tour and an IMAX theater. We started out with the tram. Our first stop was Building 30 South, the Mission Control Center.
We went up to the gallery and could see live operations of the current space shuttle mission. Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions are managed from this facility which is manned 24 x 7 365 days a year. We looked down from the galley onto the operations floor and watched video updates on the large screens below.

Next we went to Building 9 to the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility and walked along a hallway overlooking the exact replicas of the space station modules on the floor below.
At the far end of the building we say the giant arm that is used to deploy and retrieve objects out of/into the space vehicle. Built in Canada, it is known as the Canada arm.
Another cool sight was the next version of the lunar vehicle they will use on the moon the next time astronauts are there (in 2014? 2018?).
After a stop at Rocket Park where they have a Saturn V rocket, we returned to Space Center Plaza for lunch and to see some more displays.
We went to the IMAX theater for "Inside the Space Station" - a 50 minute movie on a large five story high definition screen.
Next we saw the life size mock up of the Space Shuttle cockpit and saw what they eat and their space station toilet.We also attended professional presentation "Mission Briefing" in Blast Off Theater before we departed and headed back to Galveston Island.
Later, we went to eat at a local seafood resturant and got a great outside table to enjoy the cool evening. An RV was parked over night across the street from us along the sea wall.
With that, we called it a day and went back to the Roadrunner. Thanks for taking a few moments to catch us on the Roadrunner Chronicles. We appreciate you viewing our blog for a look into what we are doing as RV 'full-timers'. Have a great Sunday!