2-23-15

Today we toured the Johnson Space Center. Had I known the 90 minute tram ride was more an open air ride than stop and visit, I would have gone a couple days ago when it was much warmer. Silly me, thinking today was perfect for an indoor activity.

In spite of that, Ruth and I had a pretty good day. The three tram stops were very interesting.

First was mission control for the flight of Apollo 13. Being in electronics my whole career, I was struck by how primitive the equipment looked. Today we have Walkie talkies that have more features than the communications used for moon flights in the day.

The second stop was the mock up and training facility for the Space Station. This is where our astronauts learned how move between compartments and practice docking maneuvers. In the robotics section we saw the lunar rover and prototypes being tested for the Orion deep space project. We had a particular interest in the display of robots from winning high school projects. Our grandson is on his HS team for Dean Kamen's annual robotic competition. I need to find out more about JSC's robotic invitational.

The third and last stop was at a building housing the last Saturn V rocket. Its' size is truly impressive. How did they ever talk the first Apollo astronauts into sitting on top of it to be blasted into space?

Upon the trams return to the visitor center, all we could think of was hot chocolate. Once that thought passed we ventured into the static exhibits where we (along with no doubt millions of others) touched a moon rock and then moved on to displays of capsules, spacesuits, and artifacts from the space age.

Ruth and I were told this would be a great stop during our travels and we found it just that.