USA Road Trip - Day 13 (Houston, Texas)

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Breakfast was jam on toast, yoghurt and muffin with orange juice. Well today is why we came to Houston. We are off to visit NASA headquarters. We had booked the NASA Level 9 VIP Tour which was hosted by David Cisco who was an excellent story teller. We booked this months ago and it is pretty hard to get in. We had 12 people in our group (they only run about 7 tours per week all with a maximum of 12), a family of 5 from Belgium, a family of 4 from Canada, us and a sole American from Florida. Tour started at 10.45am and the first stop on the 12 seater minivan was the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (where they have a 6.5 million gallons pool tank if my memory serves me right !). This is where they have all the components of the International Space Station (ISS) sitting under water where the astronauts are trained in every aspect before heading into space on a mission. This was cool to see. Outside the pool we got to see up close exact copies of all the individual components that make up the ISS. There were Russian sections, American sections and it was fascinating to see how so many countries are involved in this project and how they had to learn how to trust each other to make it work. We then had lunch where the astronauts go and I met this guy who does testing of the gas displacements of rockets that approach the ISS to make sure they don’t create an explosion which sounds like interesting and important work. Next we went to the Space Shuttle training building. Wow we were so lucky that David gave us access inside the training space shuttle where every single astronaut that has ever been on a mission had their training and I even got to sit the Commanders seat and imagined what it would be like getting ready for takeoff. It was incredibly cramped and I had trouble climbing into the seat whilst wearing casual clothing. How would they do it with a Space Suit on I imagined? Next stop was the Mission Control Centre (MCC). The first section we went to was used as the MCC for the Space Shuttle program which I did not realise actually went for about 30 years. Now the MCC operates the ISS and we got to see (from a glass viewing area) all the staff who are controlling this mission, and we saw actual live images streamed from ISS showing earth. It takes ISS only 45 minutes to orbit the earth so they have 15 sunrises a day ! You got a sense of how much important these people’s jobs are. About 15 people are invited by the Flight Director to work inside MCC 24/7 over 3 shifts. Next we went into the historic MCC for the Apollo Missions. Our guide actually gave us rare VIP access to go inside the MCC (not behind the glass viewing area). I sat in the very same Fight Directors seat that spoke with Neil Armstrong in 1969 when he said those famous words “The Eagle Has Landed” as he walked on the moon. This was also the same seat that Flight Director Gene Kranz sat in during the famous Apollo 13 mission when he heard those famous words from Jim Lovell “Houston we have a problem”. I have seen that Apollo 13 movie so many times and it was such a thrill to be here. I could visualize things I had seen from the movie happening right here and recall Gene Kranz saying to his team “Failure is not an option”. David our host was excellent as he had such information and a special way of telling stories with lots of humor thrown in. I got a sense early that he wasn’t your typical tour guide and there was a story about him coming up later. Our final stop was at the Saturn V display. This is the rocket that launched the Apollo missions and it was a huge structure. You could just imagine the noise the five massive engines would make when firing up. As we finished the tour David would explain that he used to work for NASA as a Lunar Module Technician during the Apollo missions and his team had responsibility for the aircraft that actually landed on the moon. He would say we was just one of 400,000- people who worked as a team to the astronauts into space. Very humble but inspirational. He would tell us that the average age in MCC for Apollo 11 (moon landing mission) was 26 and that we must inspire our youth because today most 26 year old are not motivated to be running NASA missions. Makes you think ? David has actually written a book about his life working at NASA and offered a copy for $20.00 which he would sign for me. No brainer, that will make riveting reading. We also saw the Orion module which is NASA’s next big thing replacing the Space Shuttle and being developed for planned attempts to visit Mars starting in 2018 (now we know why NASA has not been flying shuttles it has been working on the next frontier).When we finally finished the tour at 4.30pm (it started at 10.45am) we had little time other than to go inside the 747 jumbo on display that carried the space shuttle from its landings site in California back to Florida where liftoffs take place. It had a replica Shuttle on top which we also got to see. There was so many exhibits inside the main building which we did not get to see. The VIP tour comes with free entry for a 2^nd day but unfortunately we leave tomorrow so we won’t get to see this. Visited the gift shop where I bought another t-shirt as I just had to have those famous words emblazed across my chest. We also bought a surprise gift for the kids when we get home. The sole American on the tour had been to Cape Canaveral in Florida and was a seasoned tourist (that is what he said !) As we exited he told David that was the best tour he had ever been on. I was thinking the same thing. Kerry would say later to me “that was the best tour I have ever been on”!!! So if you are ever going to NASA in Houston you must do the once in a lifetime Level 9 VIP Tour. It only took 10 minutes to get back to our Hotel but on the way we decided to stop at this place called Saltgrass Steakhouse for dinner which was a bit early for us. Around 5.45pm we sat down and not many people were inside. We had a booth and a chap was sitting about 3 metres away having dinner on his own called Donald Scott. Now I now you ae thinking who is Donald Scott and I can tell you I did not know him when we walked in but on the way out I knew lots. He overheard us placing our orders and called across to us with a strong Texan accent “where are y’all from ?”. When we said we were from Australia he said his grandmother was from Australia and that’s when the connection started. It turned out that his Grandmother lived in Palm Beach on the Gold Coast about 15 minutes from where we live. He soon finished his meal and then got up and stood next to our booth telling us everything about his life for the next 45 minutes. He is Donald Scott the 7^th, his wife of 36 years died just 2 months ago, he is a Vietnam Veteran who worked in SAS, his Grandfather was mayor of Ipswich, QLD. He has lots of guns and the list goes on. We had ordered 2 bowls of soup as starters and then we shared an appetizer sized meat crab balls dish with just water to drink which was so cheap. We had finished our meals before Donald Scott 7^th would get to say farewell. What a story ! The weather has been fine today. It was a little cool in the morning but reached about 27 degrees in the afternoon. No humidity so it feels cooler than that. We were back in the room by 7pm and time to update the blogs knowing we must pack up tonight and head off tomorrow. Kerry would tell me that the Canadian family on our VIP tour were also staying at the same hotel as us she saw them at breakfast. What are the chances of that happening ? Being Easter Monday we decided to tuck into the Russell Stover Easter Egg we bought yesterday from Walmart which was delicious. Tomorrow we head away from Houston pretty much due west to San Antonio.

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