I believe I have mentioned here before that I'm a bit of a nut about the American Space Program. Everything about it fascinates me, and whenever the chance to see any real space memorabilia up close has presented itself, I have always taken the opportunity. My kids are also fascinated by the stuff, so for Spring Break this year, Jordan and I took Sarah and Jack to the rocket center in Hunstville, Alabama.
When you get to Huntsville, it's pretty hard to miss the full scale mockup of the Saturn V rocket on display at the entrance to the center. Standing as tall as a 36 story building, you can see it from virtually anywhere in the area.
They have a new building at the center that was just dedicated in January of 2008. It houses the original test version of the Saturn V. It never actually flew, but instead was the source vehicle for all of the engine, transport, and assembly tests.
While we were there, we took in a 3D movie about Mars. Here's Sarah sporting her 3D glasses.
There's also a Zero Gravity ride outside by the rockets. You strap in and are hurled upward, feeling zero-g for a couple of seconds on the way back down. Unfortunately Jack didn't quite make the height requirement, so he hung out while the rest of us took off.
There were a number of flown items from each of the Apollo moon missions, including this flight suit worn by John Young while inside the Lunar Module on the surface of the moon. John Young is my personal hero. Here are a few of the things he did in his lengthy NASA career.
- He flew on the first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft with Gus Grissom aboard Gemini 3.
- Flying again as Commander of Gemini 10, the mission was the first dual rendezvous with two Agena Target Vehicles.
- He first went to the Moon aboard Apollo 10, flying the Command Module solo - the first person to do so in lunar orbit.
- He flew to the Moon again as Commander of Apollo 16 and was the ninth man to set foot on the Moon.
- He is listed in the Guiness Book of World records as setting a speed record for travel on the surface of the Moon with the lunar rover (11.2 mph!)
- He was again Commander on the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle.
- He flew the Space Shuttle again on the very first Spacelab mission, also making him the first man to fly in space six times, and is the only man to have commanded Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions.
- He worked for NASA for 42 years and retired on December 31, 2004 at the age of 74.
This is one of the modified Hasselblad cameras used during the Apollo 11 mission, the first time man set foot on the Moon.
These are plaster casts of Neil Armstrong's hands, taken to make custom gloves to be worn on the surface of the Moon.
This is the Command Module "Snoopy" in which John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charlie Duke rode to the Moon.
Here's Sarah trying her hand in the original Apollo command module simulator.
Jack shows us the shuttle Pathfinder, which was the first Space Shuttle mockup used for construction and transportation testing. It never actually flew, and is in fact hollow. The fuel tank, however, is the very first shuttle fuel tank constructed, used for all of the static launch tests of the shuttle system. The lower two engines on the back end of Pathfinder are the actual engines that flew on the maiden voyage of Columbia, the very first Space Shuttle flight. The booster rockets are inert mockups.
Labels: Family, Personal, Travel
