Looking for things to check out in Houston, I remembered the famous quote “Houston, we have a problem” and opted for paying a visit to the NASA Space Center located South East of the 2.2 million-inhabitant city.
After a short trip on the highway through the Houston suburbs, I reached the NASA center around 10:30am, paid the $5 parking fee, took my camera with me, and left the bike there, with all my stuff on it and secured with cable locks (inclusive of the gas jerrycan I hoped would not be an issue). After paying the entrance ticket to the center (basic $30 adult rate, plus an additional fee for an audiotour device), I went to the audiotour counter to grab a device in exchange for my ID, and then crossed the main plaza to decide where to start.
The flight simulator seemed to be fun, so I headed there to try and pilot a jet. Charged the additional fee ($7), I waited for my turn to play in the short line (the center opened at 10am and started really filling up around noon). After a storing my camera in a locked box and a quick explanation of the controls to fly and destroy the targets, I boarded my “jet”, sat down, and the flight began shortly afterwards. I’m not sure how the many loops and spins I imposed to the simulator would have done in real life, but I’m glad my stomach was quite empty at that moment. When the simulation finished, I got my final score: 2 kills… yeah, glad I’m not in the Air Force, I would probably have been one of the kills 🙂
I then spent the next 30 minutes wandering through the different expositions which described the life aboard the internal space station, from health issues to technologies, and followed with the various space suits used by the various crews of astronauts, to end with a wall containing the pictures of all international teams in the history of NASA.
Feeling a bit of boredom from reading stuff and looking at pictures and charts, I moved toward the section of the center with bus tours and opted for a visit of the NASA Mission Control Center. The visit lasted around one hour and was interesting enough, despite some time wasted crossing parking lots and a temporary stop at a park in memory of NASA astronauts, inclusive of the ones who died in the explosion of Challenger spaceship.
First stop was at the Mission Control building, where we can peak into a room with some screens tracking the International Station and listen to a young guy, presented as a “mission control commander” (or something like that), who talked about his role and the purpose of mission control.
We then got back on the tour bus, and headed toward a large warehouse, where several parts of Saturn V were exposed.
The Saturn V hall was also presenting large boards with the various Apollo missions, inclusive of Apollo 13, and that’s when I discovered the famous quote “Houston we have a problem” was actually “Hey Houston, we’ve HAD a problem here”.
Back from the tour, I quickly checked the NASA store for goodies and t-shirts and decided to leave to reach Austin before sunset. I crossed Houston city center on the highway and then followed the direction of Austin.
I reached the Americas Best Value Inn on East Koenig Lane around 5pm, that I had booked a little earlier. After showering, and saving the pictures and videos as usual, I headed downtown to enjoy some food and music. Despite what I had been told, I felt the city was missing a bit of animation. Loud music can be heard at many places, but it’s nothing compared to Nashville or even Memphis. Maybe I was just too early in the evening… Back to the motel, I planned for the next day, with Del Rio as my destination, right beside the Mexican border.
