Space Center Houston (2021)

By Barry & Allyn Shulman
On December 16, 2021
4 Comments.

Our day at Space Center Houston was absolutely magnificent. To say it was awe inspiring is a gross understatement.

Over 50 years ago, the three-stage Saturn V rockets had six successful missions landing men on the Moon. It also launched Skylab, America’s first space station.

The Saturn V remains the only launch vehicle to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit. It is the tallest (363 feet), heaviest (6.2 million pounds equal to 39 space shuttles) and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status. It is enormous.

NASA 905, a Boeing 747-123 model built in 1970, was the first and only Shuttle Carrier Aircraft used by the space shuttle program until November 1990. This is the original. On top is the shuttle replica Independence. It is the only shuttle mounted on an SCA that the public can go inside.

Here NASA astronauts train for current missions and is where scientists and engineers are developing the next generation of space exploration vehicles.

We visited the Apollo Mission Control Center. They have the actual setup where the world watched the outcome of Apollo 11, the first attempted lunar landing.

This is the facility where NASA monitored nine Gemini and all Apollo lunar missions, including the historic Apollo 11 trip to the Moon and the final Apollo 17 trip there.

They played us a 15-minute video of their audio and visual contact during the last minutes of the moon landing, communicating with the two astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.