We had such a fun day today. We were close to the space center and it didn’t open till 10am so we enjoyed a lazy morning in pjs with the shades drawn and watched The Right Stuff…. in Sam’s Boat restaurant parking lot. After watching Hidden Figures last night it was fun seeing another movie this morning we were jazzed for the day. It also helped in understanding our day better too.
The girls immediately went to this mind over matter game to try and calm their minds to make the ball move up the tube. We knew it was possible because someone got it to move before us. No such luck. But no worries the girls…and I visited this multiple times throughout the day.
We went on the tour first. First stop was mission control. They are currently monitoring the astronauts in the ISS International Space Station. They have 2 identical mission control offices so if one malfunctions in any way they can move next door. Of course we were at the second mission control center but it was still pretty neat. They also had a large TV showing all the cameras from the current ISS.
2nd stop was the training research center. It was very cool. It’s where the astronauts and engineers practice and build things.
That’s the Orion. The Orion is part of the Artemis mission which will return to the moon. There is a mission planned in 2024 to land on the moon in the first time for 50 years. It will also be the first time a woman will walk on the Moon.
It was pretty cool because it was obvious something was going on down there. It looked as though they were taking some PR pictures and it was also being filmed. NASA is working with a Boeing and it is the first time NASA is using a private company for space travel. Boeing created the Boeing Starliner. A transport spacecraft to bring astronauts to the ISS. Currently, to get U.S. astronauts out to the ISS we go on a Russian space shuttle the Soyuz. The U.S. pays Russia $93,000,000 per flight. So NASA coupled with Boeing to build their own spacecraft to get our astronauts out to the space station. It’s set to be operational this year. According to Wikipedia “Space Adventures announced that it has acquired rights to sell tickets to the ISS on board the Boeing Starliner once operational flights begin”.
Glad we watched the Right Stuff this morning 🙂 it helped put into perspective what we were seeing. The 3rd stop was the Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V put all the Apollo missions into space. The one on display was an unused model. It also housed outside the Mercury-Redstone. The first American man in space, Alan Shepard on May 5th 1961, went up into sub orbital space in the Mercury-Redstone. Gus Grissom was the 2nd man on July 21, 1961. Gus later died in a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission. The 1st man in space was a Russian, Yurin Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.
More mind games. Edwin was brilliant at it and got it on his first try and every time after. Isabella was not far behind and then Vera. I tried so many times before I finally got it. But even then I could only do it twice.
Touring inside the independence was another favorite part of the day. We remembered a few years ago when they retired the Endeavor and it flew overhead in the Bay Area for its last flight. It was neat to go inside of it.
The ISS is now a sub gravity science lab.
The girls ended up getting to do a virtual reality ride and they had a ton of fun
During the “current space exploration” talk vera of course volunteered and got picked to try on astronaut gloves to tie shoelaces and button snaps.
