Southbound Canucks: Johnson Space Center, Houston

Our next stop was Dickinson TX where we booked into Green Caye RV Park for 4 days (our second stay here). The park is less than a half hour south of the Space Center in Houston which was the reason for our visit in the area. The first 2 days we were there the weather was hot enough that we ran our air conditioner. But the next 2 days were cold with high winds and it was time to turn the furnace on again! Luckily our activities were indoors for the 2 cold days.

On Friday November 9th we did the VIP guided tour of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Truly worth the money to do the tour. 10:30 am to 4:30 pm with lunch included. A visit to the training centers for the astronauts and the Mission Control Center for the International Space Station. What an amazing tour! We rode from stop to stop in a small limo bus complete with an audio visual system that our guide used to give us the inside scoop. The facility is very large and it is often miles between destinations so the ride was very comfortable and very informative to boot.

Tour Guide

Our tour guide was David L. Cisco, a retired NASA Apollo program employee who was a Lunar Module Spacecraft Technician. He had many interesting stories to relate as we did the tour. David has written a book "Full Circle" describing his experiences at NASA. We bought his book and he personally autographed it in our name and we hope that someday our kids and grandchildren get to read it too.

David knew everything about went on in the space program and many of the astronauts personally. We could not have had a better tour guide as he was not only well based on the space program but he was humorous too. His career started as a 13 year old forklift driver in a junkyard, advancing through to the space program, on to a career in a major airline, chairman and police commissioner, City Councilman, Presidential task force committee member, and currently a member of the Board of Advisors at the Houston Space Center. Yup, he knows his stuff.

David provides AV supported details during tour in limo bus.

Our first stop was Ellington airport. We were a day late being able to see the Super Guppy. Too bad, very sad, as this is a very unique airplane. There were, however, several T38 Talon trainer jets that every astronaut, regardless of their role in space, gets trained to fly, and stay current with 20 hours per month. An interesting side note that I learned after our visit...four astronauts died in crashes with the T38.

The Neutral Buoyancy Lab at the Sonny Carter Training Facility. The astronauts practice their EVA (Extravehicular Activity) for doing external repairs/activities on the international space station. Floating around in the water simulates the weightlessness of space and allows experience working inside a space suit. However, the density of the water changes how moving objects react. In space, these same objects just keep moving until some force changes their momentum.

In the water you will see life size duplicates of the space stations modules. It was our first impression on the actual size of the International Space Station (ISS). The pictures do not give the sense of size but look for a following picture of a our guide showing a mockup;

Space Vehicle Mockup Facility

The SVMF provides training for the interior workings of the international space station plus proposed vehicles for the journey to Mars. Full sized models complete with all controls and layouts as the real versions in space allow astronauts and technicians to train. They also allow for real-life emergency support when needed.

Model of ISS

David Cisco points out details of ISS. Note the bump just above his elbow. Can you spot two space walkers?

Here they are.

You can get a sense of the size as this is only on small parts of ISS.

Module adapter allows passage for astronauts between modules of ISS.

A view into a module


The flat solar panels on each end provide electrical power.	The grey panels in the centre are thermal radiators.

All dressed up but nobody home. A space suit on display.

A Soyuz command module.

Note the insignia on the module. A different one for every space mission.

The new space craft, Gemini, may eventually get man to Mars.

Space vehicle research.

Canadarm is here too!

David talks about moving around on the Moon or Mars.

High tech Centaur?

Spider robot can handle any terrain.

The robot lab. Not much detail on what goes on here.

SAIL - Shuttle Avionics Integration Lab

A lifesize version of the shuttle with all the panels removed to understand all the wiring. Often the astronauts preferred to test their proficiency here rather than a simulator.

The inside of the Shuttle bay showing all the wiring.

Wiring and instrumentation of Space Shuttle.

Space Shuttle control panel.

Bev. Does this switch turn on the TV?

Vic. No. It's this one.

Two astronauts in training.

Bev gives a perspective on the Shuttle bay size.

This entire facility will become a National Historical Monument in the future. It was over 7 years ago for the last Shuttle space mission, July 2011. Its first flight was 1981. It so hard to believe that such a capable space vehicle is retired but its sole purpose was to facilitate the building of the International Space Station. Since ISS is fully built and functioning, the Shuttle is no longer required.
Future space programs need new vehicles and the Gemini project will fulfill the role to get to the moon and Mars. Don't hold your breath though as maybe by 2030 something there will be a trip to Mars. The enormity of the trip is daunting as it takes at least 6 months just to get there.In the meantime, there will be missions to the moon that will serve as training and research for the future Mars missions.

Mission Control Center

Unfortunately the Historic Mission Control Center was closed for restoration in prep for the 50th anniversary celebrations next year. If you are old enough, you might remember seeing some of the news coverage during the earlier space missions. Everyone was smoking cigarettes or cigars, all the time. At the completion of an event, even more cigars were passed around for the celebrations. A major part of the restoration is getting rid of the odor and also returning the consoles to historical condition before opening to the public again.

Christopher Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center

Christopher Kraft was the man behind the Mission Control Center since its inception. He is forever remembered by having the building dedicated in his name. Note that most NASA facilities are numbered, not named. You may know a few that have names...Johnson Space Center in Houston, Kennedy Space Center in Canaveral Florida.

We did get to spend almost an hour in the Mission Control Center for the International Space Station. We stayed long enough to see the space station emerge from night into sunrise.

ISS Mission Control

Mission Control is a conglomeration of control desks, each dedicated to a specific operation, such as environmental control, position control, communications control, etc. The front of the room is wall to wall monitors of live video from ISS and telemetry. The central display shows the ISS path around the globe which takes only 90 minutes per orbit. The astronauts get to see sunrise and sunset 16 times a day!
Actually there are three Mission Controls, the original Historic Mission Control, the current ISS control centre and a new Mission Control for the upcoming Gemini program.

One of the control centre operators

The moment of sunrise on ISS

A live feed view from ISS.

NASA streams a live feed from ISS. Have a look!

The white lines are the ISS tracks. On the right side, ISS has just about to enter daylight.

Live from space.

David Cisco fills us in on Mission Control and some mission history.

Saturn V Rocket Park

The final destination was to a building housing a real rocket that was set to fly before the cancellation of the Apollo program. At 363 feet tall, it is longer than a football field. When ready for launch, it weighed 6.2 million pounds or 2.8 million kg.