Monday 28th August 2006
It's now 5.00 p.m. and we are back at our hotel having spent a day in the world of Space adventure and exploration. The coach left the hotel for the Johnson Space Center, our first port of call being the Sonny Carter building which houses the largest indoor pool in the world. In 40 feet of water astronauts were training for EVA's (space walks) on full size underwater mock ups of the space shuttle and the International Space Station. Working under water is the closest on earth they can get to the experience of walking in space. Transfer by coach took us to further astronaut facilities and an enormous building containing full size models of the shuttle, soyuz space craft and various components of the International Space Station, and a test model for the new American spacecraft designed to replace the shuttle in 2010/12. This priviledged access to this normally restricted area was followed by short lectures on moon rocks, Mars rocks and the Stardust mission which collected debris from the tail of a comet.

After lunch at the astronaut and space workers restaurant we visited the historic Apollo missions operations control room from where both Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 were directed. Having seen what it was like for the Apollo missions with their comparitively limited computer facilities, we went on to see the state of the art mission controls.