Houston, we’ve had a problem

Johnson Space Center, International

Yup, you guessed it. I was at Space Centre Houston, the official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center today. And yes the above is actually the correct line used by the Apollo 13 crew rather than “Houston, we have a problem” which became popular folklore after a couple of incorrect lines in movies.

The visitor centre is set up just outside the perimeter of the Johnson NASA Space Centre. It has all sorts of static and interactive displays, theatres, movies, and live presentations.

It was Astronaut Friday which meant that there was an Astronaut speaking about his experience in one of the theatres. Today it was Michael Foreman, who was on two shuttle missions, in 2008 and 2009. He did so well at the spacewalk portion of his tasking on the 2008 mission that they sent him back in 2009 with two rookies to teach. He had been a Naval aviator and trainer before becoming an astronaut after applying 18 times. His message to young folks in the audience who wanted to be an astronaut was not to give up trying.

One of the two most popular of the exhibits at the Center is the Tram ride which takes visitors on to the Johnson Space Centre property for 3 stops. I had booked a “timed ticket” for this attraction which saved a lot of time spent standing in line.

The first stop on the tram line is Building 30, the Houston Mission Control Centre, which is now designated as a National Historic Site. Seems like just yesterday, not historic! This is where all the Gemini and Apollo missions, (incl. full mission control from liftoff to splashdown of the moon mission Apollo 11). There were literally rotary dials on the consuls and the buttons and switches seemed so ancient. They said there is more technology in one of the new watches than was in the whole room in 1969, and they sent man to the moon. Pretty amazing, really. The Mission Control currently being used for International Space Station monitoring is on the second floor of Building 30 directly below where we saw the historic one.

An interesting piece of trivia is that after the Apollo 13 mission, the mission astronauts were so thankful to the folks at mission control that saved their lives, that they awarded them with something special. It’s a plaque mounted above the water fountain with a mirror in it. The inscription said something about indebtedness they felt to each and every one whose face appeared in the mirror as the mission control staff took a drink.

The second stop was at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, which is a training facility for astronauts. I found it fascinating. There are bits and pieces of various components of the shuttle, international space station, and new Orion, as well as the Canadarm, rovers, and space suits that the astronauts use to learn and practise using in this facility. It’s also the place were if something comes up on the mission that needs to be worked out, they can use the facility here to try things out.

Orion is the next big thing, with its first planned 2 year trip to Mars, anticipated to be in 2030 or 2035 latest. Pretty small capsule for 4 – 6 astronauts. Orion had its first test flight on Dec 5, 2014 and it was blasted into space from Florida for 2 orbits, only 4 hours, to test the first set of critical parameters.

The third stop was to see one of the historic rockets, which I didn’t stop at in order to get back to the Space Centre as I had timed tickets to the second most popular exhibit which has only been open for a week. It was really interesting to see the exhibits inside the shuttle and 747 in Independence Plaza but I was starting to get information overload. I wandered through some more of the static displays and one presentation of what life was like on the shuttle and is like on the International Space Station.

On my way back from south Houston, where the Space Centre is located, I stopped at a Boardwalk and Marina in the town of Kemah on my way back to Galveston. I succumbed to the Bubba Gump chain of restaurants for lunch and had my first Po’ boy of this trip – a battered, deep fried shrimp one. I should have taken a pass. Well, that’s checked off my list and don’t need to do that again. But it was a beautiful day and I got to watch the boats come and go from my window seat overlooking the channel from the Gulf into the marina.