To Infinity and Beyond

Posted on | October 9, 2009 | 2 Comments

Or maybe just Houston. Make that Clear Lake, Texas if you want to get technical.

Yes, indeed, we high-tailed it down there for Johnson Space Center’s homeschool education day.

We rode with friends down there and that was a huge blessing when you consider the 4-hour drive. And that was with hardly any traffic!

Our first order of the day was to get in line for a kit to build a free telescope. That had the boys excited!

j-telescope nm-telescope

We’d heard the tram ride was going to be packed, so after making the ‘scopes we headed over there. We were the last ones allowed else we’d have to wait another half hour. The tour itself was around 1 1/2 hours and covered several buildings in the very large facility.

First stop we made was just for homeschoolers. We had a demonstration and explanation of rocketry using a model. Click on the picture for an explanation.

rocketry demo

Next, we headed over to Rocket Park where we were able to view one of only 20 Saturn V rockets ever made. Well, there were a few other rockets outside as well. Our docent gave us a great explanation of the parts of the rocket and the process of leaving earth’s atmosphere, landing on the moon and getting those astronauts back home.

Saturn V rocket

smiles, coaxed

Saturn V rocket

Saturn V rocket

Saturn V rocket

Pretty impressive, isn’t it? From nose tip to tail it is well over 300 feet long and most of it never makes it back to earth.

We left from there to head to the building that housed true replicas of the International Space Station and other space vehicles. This was the area where they train astronauts in their work which is why the replicas are close to exact copies of the real thing.

Space Station mock up

After we got back to the museum facility, we had lunch and the kids enjoyed the two-story monstrosity of a play scape that they had there. It’s like a fast food play scape on massive amounts of steroids. Sure they have cameras inside and monitors to display what they see but honestly, what does that help? If I were to go in to hunt them down, I’d have no chance of catching up to them. But you know what? Between that and the shuttle simulators were the most memorable to them because they were both immersive experiences, allowing them to really get into it and learn. I was glad for them!

NM’s trip to NASA:

First, we went on a tram ride. Then during the tram ride we saw the launch of a model rocket. After we saw them launch it, we went to see the Saturn V. I saw it before so it didn’t seem so great for me after I’d seen it once, you know, but it was cool. We switched trams and lost our free telescope that we made and lost our two pictures. We saw the space station model simulator thing. It was supposed to be like the real Space Station. After that, we went to the museum and we went into this big, indoor playground thing. Then we went on this little simulator thing and then we played on it and we landed on the moon. When we went back, we exploded. After doing some other things we went back home.

J’s trip to NASA:

My favorite part about our trip was the play area and the simulator. On the tram ride, I remember seeing big tanks. I wanna go back so I can play in the park.

More photos and things we learned are over here.

Psa 97:6 The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples see His glory.

Category: Around Town, Homeschool, Photography

Comments

2 Responses to “To Infinity and Beyond”

  1. k.d.
    October 9th, 2009 @ 6:21 pm

    impressive! great photos!

    i guess that was worth a 4 hr ride…

  2. phisch
    October 10th, 2009 @ 2:05 am

    we thought it was :)

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