The phrase “Houston we’ve had a problem” was used by the crew of Apollo 13 Moon flight in 1970 to report a fault with the electrical system of their oxygen tanks. Apparently, with NASA budget reductions private companies will be used in future to ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station that’s manned by crew members from 16 different nations. Blast-Offįor our next activity we filed into the Blast-Off presentation, standing in a darkened room where we experienced the sights, sounds and even the smoke of a rocket take-off with the floor vibrating and film of the space craft during take off.Īfter the Blast-Off simulation, we moved into the presentation theatre with a mock up of the mission control room on stage and heard the latest news about the space programme. I can report that it’s achieved either by peeing into a cup attached to a tube or by securing yourself to the toilet and then a bit of suction and the job is done so to speak! Showering isn’t really possible as the drops of water would simply float away, so the astronauts give themselves a daily body wash instead. Sound doesn’t travel in space due to the lack of atmosphere, but you can hear sound if you touch something being knocked so that the vibrations pass through your body.Īpparently the burning question that everyone wants answered is how astronauts go to the bathroom. Most of the hangar was taken up by the part of the rocket that contained the fuel with just a small capsule that brought the astronauts back to earth.īlast-off theatre at Space Center Houston On the way back to the Space Center we stopped at the Rocket Park with a few rockets to see outside another enormous hangar that contained Saturn V, the powerful rocket that took the astronauts to the moon. The enormous hangar contained one big workshop containing mock-ups of the space craft to allow astronauts to get the feel of the confined living and working areas where they will be spending time when in space.This was the scaled up NASA equivalent of your dad’s garage, if your dad just happened to be a space craft inventor in his spare time with half finished projects and spare rocket parts littered all around the place. President George Bush said “Each of these astronauts knew that great endeavors are inseparable from great risks and each of them accepted these risks willingly, even joyfully in the cause of discovery. Each tree commemorates an astronaut who died on a space mission, such as those in the Challenger and Colombia space disasters. On the tram tour you will pass a grove of oaks, the Astronaut Memorial Grove. The guide from the tram tour continued the commentary inside the mock-up facility where we could see a girl in a space suit who presumably was an astronaut in training. Sometimes you can visit Apollo Mission Control Centre but we didn’t get to see it on that day. There were two main stops on our tram tour, a big hangar housing the Space Vehicle mock-up facility and the Rocket Park. What made the tour fascinating, however, was the commentary, partly pre-recorded stories and anecdotes from astronauts, partly from the guide who pointed out places of interest. The tour took us around the working buildings of the NASA compound which were not especially exciting to look at, as they comprised mainly large office blocks and hangars. Pausing for a family photo for “security” (and naturally with the opportunity to buy the photo later) we boarded the open sided tourist train. Click to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, news and reader offers.Other useful links for visiting Houston.Information for visiting the Space Center Houston.
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