Huge thanks to our guide Holly and our driver Brenda for a superb and very informative tour today.
Walking around right inside the newly restored original/historic Mission Control, exploring the Space Vehicle Mock Up Facility to see the ISS and capsules (Soyuz and Orion) up close, watching the robotics team working with humanoid Valkyrie, and seeing divers in the vast Neutral Buoyancy Lab pool were unforgettable highlights.
And who knew how hard it could be to get out of a spacesuit? In a NASA viewing room we watched live as two members of ISS mission #61 came back in through the airlock from a 6 hour EVA (spacewalk) and were carefully and laboriously released from their suits by two colleagues.
We were lucky to see inside the ISS today. The current Mission Control was, as always, the last stop on the tour, at around 4pm. It’s fascinating to watch the Flight Director and the rest of the Houston team at work, and the live footage of the space station orbiting so quickly through sunset and sunrise is beautiful. But 4pm Houston time is 10pm ISS time (GMT) so by then the astronauts are off to bed and the space station’s indoor cameras aren’t transmitting.
All in all, the Level 9 Tour isn’t cheap but, gosh, it’s priceless.