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Recently decided to take a detour on the way to a meeting and swing by the Johnson Space Centre down in Houston Texas. Johnson Space Centre is where almost all of the training for astronauts takes place, as well there is where shuttle and space station mission control are located. Hence "Houston we have a problem". The Space Centre is MASSIVE to say the least. The public can only get access to about 10% of the base, but for $30 its a good way to kill 5 hours, and they got a lot of cool **** there to see.
Because it is an active high security facility they aren't huge fans of large cameras there. So bringing a second lens was a no go, and I was stuck walking around with my wide angle sigma 10-20mm. All shot with my D90.
I went on a Monday morning early in the morning to avoid the crowds so I could get most shots without people. But by the end of the tour it was almost impossible to take photos that captured things without a million people in the way.
Enjoy
First stop, the Shuttle;
Flight deck
Bay Door Controls
Bathroom
This is a mock up of the space station interior
Next up was a tour to the rock lab
And then to the moon itself
Then some space artifacts
Then it was off to the coolest part of the trip, Rocket Park.
The specs on the Saturn V rocket are 363 feet long and 43 feet tall. God damn enormous. This used to lay outside but due to the Texas humidity that was eating away at the rocket since the 1980's they built a huge hanger around the rocket and restored it. Definetly glad I had the wide angle for this. It almost shows how big it is, but you really have to see it to believe it. Kinda jaw dropping. You have to be truley crazy to strap yourslef to one of these bad boys.
As one astronaut that I met on the tour said, "when it hits 5 seconds and you feel the booster rockets begin to fire you know you are going somewhere damn fast".
Training Rocket
This is about 14-16 feet tall
And then you go inside
Last but not least was a tour of mission control.
This is the actual room used to control all the old missions, and when things like Apollo 13 happend this was where the call came to.
Also toured space station control, because it is active they don't allow any type of photography. The astronauts were sleeping while I toured through but its still pretty cool. I thought I had enough computer screens on my desk....these guys have WALLS of screens.
If you ever make it down to Texas it's definetly worth the stop.
Because it is an active high security facility they aren't huge fans of large cameras there. So bringing a second lens was a no go, and I was stuck walking around with my wide angle sigma 10-20mm. All shot with my D90.
I went on a Monday morning early in the morning to avoid the crowds so I could get most shots without people. But by the end of the tour it was almost impossible to take photos that captured things without a million people in the way.
Enjoy
First stop, the Shuttle;
Flight deck
Bay Door Controls
Bathroom
This is a mock up of the space station interior
Next up was a tour to the rock lab
And then to the moon itself
Then some space artifacts
Then it was off to the coolest part of the trip, Rocket Park.
The specs on the Saturn V rocket are 363 feet long and 43 feet tall. God damn enormous. This used to lay outside but due to the Texas humidity that was eating away at the rocket since the 1980's they built a huge hanger around the rocket and restored it. Definetly glad I had the wide angle for this. It almost shows how big it is, but you really have to see it to believe it. Kinda jaw dropping. You have to be truley crazy to strap yourslef to one of these bad boys.
As one astronaut that I met on the tour said, "when it hits 5 seconds and you feel the booster rockets begin to fire you know you are going somewhere damn fast".
Training Rocket
This is about 14-16 feet tall
And then you go inside
Last but not least was a tour of mission control.
This is the actual room used to control all the old missions, and when things like Apollo 13 happend this was where the call came to.
Also toured space station control, because it is active they don't allow any type of photography. The astronauts were sleeping while I toured through but its still pretty cool. I thought I had enough computer screens on my desk....these guys have WALLS of screens.
If you ever make it down to Texas it's definetly worth the stop.
If it's smoken it ain't broken
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