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Visiting the Houston Space Center

By: Wayne Gunnstone

The Houston Space Center is the best place for space exploration, especially if you have kids who are budding astronauts or just interested in space, science, or American History. A visit to this legendary landmark is an absolute must if you happen to be there on holiday. You can be sure of a great experience for learning, excitement, and fun!

The Space Center realizes that children of today are the space explorers of tomorrow. So it has created a separate and interesting Kids Space Place for the budding astronauts. But it does not mean that adults are not welcome here, they would also find many interesting things. The kids though would find the whole atmosphere fun filled and full of learning. So if you want your kid to develop a scientific temper, and take in interest in science and space exploration, the Houston Space Center is ideal for you.

Moreover, you will get an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek on the NASA tram tour at the space center. You can see the historic mission control that guided the early space exploration programs of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions at the Johnson Space Center. Also, you will get a peek at Hanger X and astronaut training facilities. If you are lucky, you may even get a glimpse of actual astronauts training for their missions!

The center Astronaut Gallery displays portraits of every U.S. astronaut along with many space suits and tons of memorabilia. It is the moving memorial to the astronauts killed either in training or during the mission, including the crew of Apollo One, Challenger, and the recent Columbia disasters.

The Feel of Space actually gives you the feel of what it would be like to live, sleep, and work in space. Through this interactive presentation you can see how the astronauts live while in outer space, while a Mission Briefing Officer tells you secrets and answers any questions. You can experience landing an orbiter, exploring the shuttle, or even retrieving a wayward satellite!

A visit to the Space Center theatre would show you many life size pictures related to space exploration. You can see President Kennedy's resolve to put a man on the moon to Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon. The screen is five-storey large, and you can see the history of space exploration and its future at one go.

The Blast Off Theater puts visitors in the center of the action as a space shuttle departs for the international space station. It also offers several different movies and experiences suitable for kids and adults. You can see what goes on behind the scenes during liftoff and the flurry of activity in mission control and mission status center.

The Houston Space Center is not to be missed if you are in its neighborhood. Shop at the Space Trader and purchase some mementoes of your trip for fond memories for you and your family. You would be amazed at what you can buy at the Space Trader-astronaut ice-cream, reproductions of newspapers commemorating important events in space explorations like landing on the moon-just to name a few! School groups and family all would find the visit a great fun-filled learning experience. Just 25 miles south of Houston, the Houston Space Center is waiting to be explored by you and your family.

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Wayne Gunnstone is the owner and operator of F houston, the #1 source on the internet for information about houston, For questions or comments about this article why not visit: www.fdhouston.com/articles
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