Tuesday, 9 April 2019
Kemah, Texas, USA
Have been looking forward to today for ages. Doing a tour of Johnson Space Centre.
Houston.
Not just any tour.
Oh no.
Just for you, dear reader, am taking you behind the scenes on the Level 9 VIP Tour.
‘Cos you’re worth it.
Obtain my VIP pass and bypass all the screaming schoolkids on their day trip. Thankfully, the VIP tour is limited to 12 people.
It’s an utterly brilliant day.
There’s a lot of history here. This is where the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo moon landings were all planned and trained for. Johnson Houston is NASA’s astronaut training facility and research and development, whilst Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, is primarily used for rocket launches.
Houston obviously made famous during the Apollo 13 crisis when an oxygen tank exploded enroute to the moon, thus creating that memorable line from Commander Jim Lovell, “Houston, we have a problem.”
In the late 1950s/early 1960s, NASA developed the Mercury and Gemini programmes as a pre-cursor to the moon landings. Mercury developed a single man rocket which propelled the first American, Alan Shepherd, into space in May 1961. As you will see from the photo below, it’s a tiny rocket, especially as it stands next one of Saturn V rocket engines (of which there were 5), which actually propelled the Apollo missions to the moon. Staggering to see the rate of technical development in just a few years from that small Mercury rocket to the massive 110m long, 10m diameter, Saturn V rocket, housed in its own building.
It’s a WOW moment when you first see it. It’s like a skyscraper on its side.
Saturn V rocket is still the biggest rocket ever made in terms of being the tallest, heaviest and most powerful at 7,500,000lbs of thrust. Space X’s current rocket doesn’t produce as much thrust apparently.
Essentially built in 4 stages, the first stage (the big bulky bit at the bottom) burns for about 2.5mins to take the rocket up to 42miles and a speed of about 6,000mph. This is then jettisoned and the stage 2 booster takes the rocket up to about 109miles and 17,500mph in a 6min burn. This is then jettisoned and stage 3 takes the Command and Service Modules up to 24,500mph and lunar orbit. When in lunar orbit, the Command and Service Module detaches, connects to the Lunar Lander at the back of the stage 3 rocket, removes the Lunar Lander and jettisons the stage 3 rocket, in preparation for stage 4. Once ready to land on the moon, the Lunar Lander detaches and descends to the moon. The Eagle has landed, so to speak. After the moon landing, the lunar module ascends 60miles up and reconnects to the Command and Service Module. The Service Module is jettisoned once the astronauts are ready to enter the earth’s atmosphere in the Command Module.
Simple.
On top of the Saturn V rocket is another small rocket attached to the Command Module. This is the escape rocket. If the main Saturn V rockets malfunctioned and the crew needed to escape then the escape rocket fires and detaches the Command Module from the rest of the rocket to save the crew.
The radio signals from the first moon landing with Apollo 11 had to be transmitted to Australia and there was a glitch. Neil Armstrong did in fact say, “That’s one small step for a man…” but what was broadcast was, “That’s one small step for man…”, missing the ‘a’ out.
There’s lots of massive buildings on this complex and the next is the International Space Station full size mock up. Used to train astronauts on the inside details of the ISS. We’re taken on to the ‘shop floor’, so to speak, and peer in the modules and a Soyuz capsule which is tiny. You can see Tim Peake’s Soyuz capsule in the Science Museum in London. It’s tiny from the outside but when you poke your head inside it’s even smaller. No good if you suffer claustrophobia.
The whole of the ISS is laid out in the hall and at the other end are other projects being worked on and see NASA scientists busy at work, though sadly no astronauts are training today. The new Orion module is being developed. This will take humans to Mars. The current thinking is that they’ll have a new space station in lunar orbit, using the moon as a staging post, and using this new space station as a launch pad for missions to Mars. Fascinating insight.
Additionally, they’re developing robonauts to assist with Mars missions and one rig is set up to train a robotic astronaut to open a car door, take a bag out and put it in another place. Interesting to hear that they’re using human form robots as it’s easier to develop alongside humans, as they need to be able to do what humans can do and it’s not worth developing two different systems.
Whilst the ISS mock up facility in this hangar is for training on the inside of the ISS, the Neutral Buoyancy Lab a few miles away at the former Ellington Air Force Base is used to train astronauts on the outside of the ISS.
The Spacewalk.
Originally to achieve weightlessness, astronauts used to fly in the ‘vomit comet’, an aircraft in free fall. Told that the Russians achieved the same effect by putting their cosmonauts in a tall lift which was then left to free fall. Can you imagine?
It was Buzz Aldrin, who was a keen scuba diver, that suggested that diving would be a better environment and so they built this massive pool. I’m using the word ‘massive’ to describe many things but there’s a reason for that. Often overused in the UK by millennials, it really is an apt description of things I see. Within the pool is a full sized mock up of the ISS to enable astronauts to train for their spacewalks. This is obviously where Tim Peake trained for his, a couple of years ago.
During lunch in the staff canteen, ask my fellow Americans what they think of Trump. Am told, “We don’t talk about it in public.”
Oh. OK then.
She later catches up with me in private. There was another American they didn’t know at the table so they thought best to keep quiet. They don’t even talk about it at home as their daughter-in-law is Republican, they being Democrat, and it can be very divisive.
Know the feeling. Telling someone you’re a Brexiteer or a Remoaner back in the UK can lose acquaintances. Though not friends. My view is: each to their own. I’m happy to tell you my thoughts but expect respect for those thoughts, as I respect other points of view. Not like these leftie liberals that won’t let anyone have a point of view different to their own and go off in a fit of hysteria.
In the words of Ben Elton, “Ooh, a little bit of politics!”
I digress.
Am going to keep asking Americans what they think of Trump.
Anyway. Final stop is the Christopher Kraft Mission Control Centre. The building actually houses five separate control rooms. The control room used for the Apollo 11 moon landings is currently being refurbished in time for the 50th Anniversary in July of this year. Instead, we’re treated to the piece de resistance of the tour.
The International Space Station Mission Control room.
Enter the VIP gallery behind a glass partition. Another WOW moment. Live feeds from the ISS showing flying over earth at 17,500mph. By coincidence, it makes USA landfall as we’re there, flying over Seattle and then down towards Florida. It’s an amazing scene before me. One of my favourite films is ‘Wargames’, set during the height of the Cold War in 1983, starring Matthew Broderick. I know a number of you will be nodding your heads in agreement. The control room reminds me of the NORAD control room in the film. Another great control room you can visit is RAF Neatishead in Norfolk, UK. That was the UK’s nuclear missile tracking station in the 1980s. Worth a visit too.
The main display has planet Earth mapped out with the track of the ISS and 3 of the 12 communication satellites that are used to relay ISS data back to earth in 0.5seconds. Also displayed are the control rooms in Europe, Japan and Russia (I think she said). It’s fascinating just sitting there and watching the goings on. As someone with a passing interest in such things, have managed to photograph the ISS flying over the UK, so it’s interesting to see Mission Control.
Oh. OK. I’m like a kid at Christmas. I admit it.
This is exciting stuff.
Go on. Admit it. You’d love to be there too! I know a few of you would!
Another excellent dinner in a local diner in Kemah called T-Bone Tom’s. Something of a local institution. I mentioned ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ TV programme in yesterday’s blog. Well this restaurant has actually featured in an episode of ‘Triple D’. The marinated brisket is to die for. So tasty. This is real comfort food.
Well.
Have to say.
That was an excellent and very memorable day.
I know I’m lucky but that was something special.
Enjoy the photos below. Hope this gives you your own tour by proxy.
