May 2017 - Houston Space Center

In May, Holly had an ICU nursing conference in Houston, Texas (NTI for her CCRN certification).  We took the opportunity to visit with my parents just outside of Houston.  We had a wonderful visit, seeing their new home in Fulshear.

After our visit, we checked into our hotel downtown (Hilton Americas) and Holly commenced with her conference.  We were, however, able to squeeze in a visit to the Houston Space Center.  We booked a VIP tour and my parents were able to join us for the tour.

We stumbled onto the VIP tour by accident, but couldn't have been more pleased.  Rather than joining the masses (including lots and lots of school children) and piling into a crowded, open-air tram - we were part of a group of 9 people that had a nice, air-conditioned coach and a private guide for nearly five hours.

The tour started in a hanger in which a full-size Apollo Rocket was on display.  After this we traveled off-property to the underwater training facility.  Interestingly, there were two astronauts training in the water while we were there!  It was a great experience.

Next we went to the current day Mission Control, where the were monitoring the space station.  We were told that one of the astronauts had just completed an unplanned space walk to fix a faulty device outside the station.  We then went to the historic, 1960's Mission Control area, replete with the exact equipment used in the 60's to monitor and control the Apollo missions.

Finally, we were treated to a rare chance to visit the Shuttle Simulator.  It was an actual-size, fully functional Shuttle in a hanger.  If it had wheels, it could fly.  We were told that every astronaut had to train on this device prior to going into space.  Also, when a shuttle was in space this simulator had a crew operating the entire time, mimicking the actions and trying solutions prior to the actual shuttle in space trying them.  We were able to sit in the cockpit and see all the controls used to fly the shuttle!

I was born in Houston.  I have visited my parents many, many times.  This is the first time we had visited the Space Center.  A great trip!!

Here is a slideshow I made of our trip, including footage of the Apollo missions from the 60's to start it off - Click Here to Open