While manned US space missions have their high-profile launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the planning and most of the training happens at NASA's Johnson Space Center, just outside of
March 26, 2006 (Press Release) --
The Orange Show
Beginning in 1954, the late Jeff McKissack began building a monument to honor the orange. Starting with a simple house, he added sculptures, wishing wells, folksy sayings, observation decks and wheels - lots of wheels. Everything is painted orange, naturally. Some call the work folk art, others dub it madness: it's both. The house is about 4 miles (7km) southeast of downtown and accessible by bus.
Museum of Printing History
An often missed gem, this carefully curated museum has rare and unusual printed works that range from the Dharani Scroll, which dates from 764 and is one of the oldest printed works in existence, to the 4 March 1887 San Francisco Daily Examiner, which is the day William Randolph Hearst (of 'They kidnapped my granddaughter and turned her into a terrorist' fame) became a newspaper publisher. If the word 'kerning' means anything to you, you'll enjoy the vast displays of typography through the ages. The museum is in the southern part of downtown.
Johnson Space Center
While manned US space missions such as the Apollo and shuttle programs have their high-profile launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the planning and most of the training happens at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), just outside of Houston.
The glory, guts and cigarette butts of the NASA experience have been theme-park packaged as Space Center Houston, the tourist gateway to the JSC. Heavy commercial sponsorship has led to exhibits featuring Saturn automobiles with 'space age plastic components' and a collection of Lego rockets (with kits for making them available at the giftstore).
Despite all the hype, however, you can find some actual evidence that the space program had a function beyond marketing, including Faith-7, the Mercury capsule used to orbit the earth; the command module from Apollo 17, used on the last trip by humans to the moon in 1972; and a trove of actual moon rocks, including one you can touch. You can also see Mission Control, the space shuttle training mock-up, zero-gravity labs and more, but to see them all involves several 90-minute tours. Combine the complexities of the schedule with the fact that usually you have to wait in lines for the trams, and you'll soon determine that it will take most of the day to see the JSC. Visitors have much easier access to adjacent Rocket Park, where tiny Redstone rockets are dwarfed by a giant Saturn 5 used in the Apollo program.
The JSC is 20 miles (32km) southeast of downtown Houston. Metro buses connect with downtown.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Beginning in 1954, the late Jeff McKissack began building a monument to honor the orange. Starting with a simple house, he added sculptures, wishing wells, folksy sayings, observation decks and wheels - lots of wheels. Everything is painted orange, naturally. Some call the work folk art, others dub it madness: it's both. The house is about 4 miles (7km) southeast of downtown and accessible by bus.
Museum of Printing History
An often missed gem, this carefully curated museum has rare and unusual printed works that range from the Dharani Scroll, which dates from 764 and is one of the oldest printed works in existence, to the 4 March 1887 San Francisco Daily Examiner, which is the day William Randolph Hearst (of 'They kidnapped my granddaughter and turned her into a terrorist' fame) became a newspaper publisher. If the word 'kerning' means anything to you, you'll enjoy the vast displays of typography through the ages. The museum is in the southern part of downtown.
Johnson Space Center
While manned US space missions such as the Apollo and shuttle programs have their high-profile launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the planning and most of the training happens at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), just outside of Houston.
The glory, guts and cigarette butts of the NASA experience have been theme-park packaged as Space Center Houston, the tourist gateway to the JSC. Heavy commercial sponsorship has led to exhibits featuring Saturn automobiles with 'space age plastic components' and a collection of Lego rockets (with kits for making them available at the giftstore).
Despite all the hype, however, you can find some actual evidence that the space program had a function beyond marketing, including Faith-7, the Mercury capsule used to orbit the earth; the command module from Apollo 17, used on the last trip by humans to the moon in 1972; and a trove of actual moon rocks, including one you can touch. You can also see Mission Control, the space shuttle training mock-up, zero-gravity labs and more, but to see them all involves several 90-minute tours. Combine the complexities of the schedule with the fact that usually you have to wait in lines for the trams, and you'll soon determine that it will take most of the day to see the JSC. Visitors have much easier access to adjacent Rocket Park, where tiny Redstone rockets are dwarfed by a giant Saturn 5 used in the Apollo program.
The JSC is 20 miles (32km) southeast of downtown Houston. Metro buses connect with downtown.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
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