Spoiler Alert: We loved Space Center Houston so much that we went back on another day for the winter evening Galaxy Lights display (cost $29.95/person). Thus, I’m going to try to hit the highlights on things I think visitors won’t want to miss. A visitor cannot possibly see everything in a single day, and it is hard not to get overwhelmed with the vast amount of information in the place. I recommend getting in line as soon as you arrive at the center.Īccording to the website, Space Center Houston is home to “over 400 space artifacts, permanent and traveling exhibits, exhibits and experiences and theaters related to the exciting future and remarkable past of America’s human space-flight program.” Even if someone spends seven hours (420 minutes) at the center, that’s only about one minute for each thing. Visitors must be physically present at Space Center Houston to get in the “virtual line” for a tram tour. At the time of our visit, there were two tram tours available: one tram tour took visitors to the historic NASA Mission Control building and another tram tour took visitors to the Astronaut Training Facility and to Rocket Park (more on both below). The tram tours take visitors away from the museum and off-site to other NASA buildings. We arrived right when the center opened at 10:00 am, and quickly got in the “virtual line” for one of the tram tours. During our thirty-minute drive to the center, I read through some of the mobile app content aloud to Kasie so that we would know more about what to expect in advance. We downloaded the Space Center Houston mobile app ahead of time. We planned to spend nearly the entire day at Space Center Houston on a weekday in December, hoping to avoid the crowds. The place is always ranked high on most “THINGS TO DO” lists (it’s #1 on TripAdvisor). Her responsibilities include assisting astronauts in their EVA training underwater.Today, the price of admission to Space Center Houston has tripled ($29.95), and pretty much everything can be booked online. She’s been a recreational diver since 2000, a professional diver since 2011, and joined the NBL dive team in 2017. She has held many different positions at the pool, including safety diver, dive supervisor, environmental control system operator, and test director. Melass is a dive operations specialist at the NBL. His primary focus now is to support NBL operations and hardware integration. He has been a part of the team at the NBL since 1999 and was part of the dive team until 2009. He currently manages NBL external customer and facility projects related to development operations and future capabilities. McArthur retired from NASA in June 2017 as the Director of Safety and Mission Assurance for NASA Johnson Space Center.īrandon is the NBL Flight Lead. A veteran of four space flights, McArthur logged 224 days, 22 hours, 28 minutes and 10 seconds in space, including 24 hours and 21 minutes of spacewalks. Panelists include astronaut Bill McArthur, NBL Flight Lead Danny Brandon, and NBL Dive Ops Specialist Kristie Melass. Even at this size, the International Space Station, at 350 ft x 240 ft, will not fit inside the NBL. It is 202 ft in length, 102 ft in width and 40 ft in depth (20 ft above ground level and 20 ft below) and holds 6.2 million gallons of water. The NBL is split into two sections, each of which can be used for astronaut training simultaneously. Though suited astronauts are not weightless while training in the pool, neutral buoyancy is the best current method to train astronauts for spacewalks. In such a state, even a heavy object can be easily manipulated, much as it is in the zero gravity of space. If an item is made neutrally buoyant through a combination of weights and flotation devices, it will seem to “hover” under water. Neutral buoyancy is the equal tendency of an object to sink or float. NASA team members use the NBL to develop flight procedures, verify hardware compatibility, train astronauts, and refine spacewalk procedures during flight that are necessary to ensure mission success. The mission of the NBL is to prepare for space missions involving spacewalks.
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