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This morning I got up early (for me, anyway) and drove on to Houston. Another huge thunderstorm as I got to the beltway. Traffic slowed to a crawl 'cause there was such poor visibility. I eventually fought my way to the Johnson Space Center which is south of Houston on the I-45. But true to form, the rain stopped as soon as I got out of my car.
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OK. I wasn't as impressed with the tourist facilities here as I was at Kennedy Space Center. There was one building with displays, rides, films, etc. More were oriented for kids, and a lot had nothing to do with NASA or space travel. Less information and more entertainment.
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Even though the focus was different, I have to admit there was information about the space program for patrons over the age of eight. Mostly displays of models of space craft and space suits, such as this diorama. They had some films on 5 story high screens, but it was interesting that they did not use the term IMAX at any time. One was a special from the Discovery Channel.
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There was a tram tour to the actual NASA facilities, and along the way its passed a few displays of rocket boosters. Again, much less than the Kennedy Space Center, but they did have the Saturn V/Apollo and the Mercury/Redstone rockets right next to each other. As I said before, I was amazed how small the early rockets were! They went from the Mecury to Apollo in less than 10 years!
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Mostly the tram drove around some '60's and '70's-looking buildings, while the tour guide pointed to the building and said "Here is where NASA..." We went inside two buildings, the master control room and this building which the astronauts train in full-size mock-ups. This was pretty cool. Florida is the launch site, but Houston is where the astronauts train and all missions are developed and run from here.
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So I guess it's more for kids. This one is having fun trying to lift this barbell. The display shows you how heavy the weight would be with the gravity of different planets. Of course it helps if you're Superman.
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