First stop is the Space Shuttle. A couple of pictures of the cockpit.
Next stop is Rocket Park. Here is a Saturn V rocket, built for Apollo 18 which was cancelled. I don't know that guy. This is a detail shot of the main engines and this is a picture of the second stage engines.
The Mercury rocket, used for the 'first men in space' missions are really tiny. They didn't pay these guys enough.
I'm drawing a complete blank on what this rocket was used for. Somebody fill me in please.
The X38 is the prototype escape vehicle for the International Space Station. It's being built in this hangar. The white pieces in this picture make up the cradle that will hold the X38 during it's ride on the Space Shuttle. The guy in that picture is creeping me out. Oddly enough, as we exited the hangar these things were just sitting out at the edge of the parking lot.
This was the most interesting point on the tour. The Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. In this huge building are exact replicas of all the space vehicles in use today and is where the astronauts train for months before their mission. There are 2 shuttle cockpit mockups, 1 complete shuttle and another shuttle bay mockup. All the pieces of the ISS are here and so is the Russian Soyuz capsule. Along the wall are the flags from the countries participating in the ISS.
There were a couple of interesting things to point out in this facility. The ISS and Shuttle 'arms' are here for training. To simulate the weightlessness they use helium filled shells to represent ISS parts, satellites, etc. Another training device is this. I've forgotten the name of it, but it's basically a huge air hockey table. Getting used to the frictionless environment of a vacuum is done by training with this platform which floats on a bed of air. You'd have to see it in action to get a good sense of what I'm talking about. Just ignore me.
Here are the rest of the pics from the SVMF. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
That was it for NASA. I went to Galveston and to the beach that same afternoon. Yippee. 1 2 3
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