by K Vaze

Created on: November 11, 2008   Last Updated: December 11, 2008

NASA space center, Houston, TX

The Universe and The Space has always held great fascination for mankind. From ancient times humans have always tried to unlock the mysteries of this great unknown by studying the stars and planets. For us in the modern times the Houston space center has helped us understand more about the universe we live in, about the earth and the moon and the solar system of which we are a part of.

The History

The Houston space center, named in the honor of late president, Lyndon Johnson, and established in 1961, has been used as a training base for Astronauts, design and development center for manned space flights and control center for the space flights for last 30 years. It has played an extremely important role in United States success in the Space Race. "Houston, the eagle has landed", with these words, Houston became the first word spoken from the surface of the moon. And that small step for humans but a giant leap for mankind, made Houston space center from where the Apollo missions to moon were handled, became paramount in the history of world's space exploration

Our Visit

When we decided to visit Houston, visiting the space center was unanimous choice from our to do list. Since watching the movie Apollo 13, and reading about the important role that the space center has played in all those missions, our family had been looking forward to visit the Johnson space center for many days. We knew that it is the same center from where the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab flights were controlled, and we couldn't wait to take a first hand look at the mission control room, the rockets and as they advertised on their site, take a look at real astronauts in training. Our boys ages 9 and 3 were very excited and so were we grown ups. When we got there it was not very crowded as it was a weekday, so got our tickets right away which are about $19 for adults and $15 for kids. If you live in and around Houston you can always take a membership which costs few bucks more but certainly is worth it.

The Blast off theater

Our first stop was blast off theater. It was a small theater where we stood and the screen came alive as the rockets got ready to take off. The boosters boomed and it felt like we were launched into space. The billowing exhaust from the rocket was simulated by the blasts of smoke from vents near the floor; my 3 year old was amazed. After the movies we learned about the current missions to space center, and also about the mission to mars. The mission

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