At the end of October I flew to Houston, Texas. The city was beautiful, lovely and clean and very empty as much commerce goes on underground. During an open top city tour I captured these wonderful reflections in the glass towers.
Obviously if you are in Houston you have to visit the NASA Johnson Space Center. It was fantastic - so exciting to be there. As you arrive you are greeted by the Independence Space Shuttle on top of its carrier aircraft.
One day we went to The Heights area of Houston where there are lots of antique and vintage shops. We found one shop that specialised in items for 'Day of the Dead'. Inside they had a display of actual altars that local people set up in their homes.
Then in the Rocket Park you can see a Little Joe III and a Mercury-Redstone rocket.
Inside a huge hanger is the Saturn V rocket that took part in the Apollo missions.
We went into the mission control center and actually went into the one that controlled the moon landings. Although this is no longer used on the floor below is the control centre for the space station. There was a live feed to this and to the space station. I was very excited.
In Building 9 we saw the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Not only did it contain mockups used for the training of past missions it also had equipment for the space station and for the forthcoming Orion mission to Mars. There were people in there actually working on this equipment.
There was also a museum area that contained moon rock you could touch. It also had the Apollo 17 command module from 1972 and the Faith 7 Mercury capsule from 1963.
The display of spacesuits from the beginning to the present was also really interesting. The first one here was worn by Charles Conrad on the Apollo 12 mission to the moon. The second is a more modern one.
This was a great visit and I would definitely recommend it.
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