Baltimore-Houston-Galveston

 

The day before  V-Day flight

Fat Tuesday

Snacks and a drink on the plane

NASA's Johnson Space Center 


SpaceX Falcon

Space Shuttle Independence, formerly known as Explorer, is a full-scale, high-fidelity replica of the Space Shuttle. 


Got to touch a moon rock

Saturn V model and Apollo 17 capsule

Replica of lunar surface and astronauts with earth in the background

The Lunar Surface checklist that would have went with the astronauts down to the lunar surface on the Lunar Module Aquarius with Jim Lovell and Fred Haise on the Apollo 13 mission.  Was signed by the crew upon their return after the famous "Houston, we have a problem"

Gene Kranz, the Flight Director at Mission Control and one of his famous vests

Apollo 17 capsule

Gemini capsule replicating the first US Spacewalk

Mercury capsule

Astronaut Suni Williams, Go Navy, Beat Army socks.  Suni was a US Navy Test Pilot school graduate at Pax River where Rob and Toni worked.

Retired Astronaut Brian Duffy gave a nice presentation

Model of the moon


Then a Tram ride through the gate to NASA's Chris Kraft Apollo Mission Control Center










Apollo 11 crew


They have made the control room look as it did in 1969

Checklists, rotary phone and displays as they were


Yes, back in the day you could smoke in the Control Room, and a metal can to empty the ash trays



Displays, video, and sound from the control room as the first humans landed on the moon and we heard "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed"

Neil Armstrong's one small step



First Friday in Lent and we found a Church Fish Fry




Beautiful Church. Original church was built for the astronauts when the Space Center was built. Some of the stained glass in the new sanctuary are actually pictures from the Hubbell Space Telescope that one of the Astronauts that attends this church provide.

Even the McDonalds was space focused

Drive down to Galveston where the cruise port is

Windy day for the beach



But Toni braved the wind looking for shells

Cactus

Just hours away now to boarding























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