A Friday of Events

24 July 2009

Ellington Field~
We had a tour through work of Ellington Field. Its where they house the T-38s that the Astronauts train in and use to get from base to base for different training runs. Its also where they house the Gulfstream Jets used to teach the pilots of the shuttle how to land the shuttle (since a real shuttle can't be used).

It was a Lockheed based tour, which was fine. Lockheed Martin had a good deal to do with the training equipment and stuff in the building. We got to actually see the cockpit of a T-38 up close and personal. It was so cool, and I would love to get to work out there, but that won't happen. With the Shuttle retiring, a lot of things down here will go away.

Anyways, it was worth the 2.5 hours I couldn't charge that day!
EVA~
I also got to head over to Mission Control to watch the end of a space walk. I got there just before they finished up. But I got to watch the astronauts get back into the airlock. :D
Splashdown~
After work, we headed over to Space Center Houston to join the ever so long line of people heading to the Splashdown Celebration. It was neat, but the theatres filled up before we even got inside the damn building. We went to where there was suppose to be music, but they had set up another screen to play the speakers on instead.

We got to hear from the new NASA director Mr. Bolden, five flight directers from the era, Neil and Buzz. The flight directors were George Abbey, Gerald Griffin, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, and Glynn Lunney. Neil Armstrong had a good speak that clearly came from his heart. Buzz Aldrin had way more to say than he should have said. We aren't sure, but we think he might be losing his mind. Most of the guys stated what they thought about where NASA is currently headed and the general idea was "don't repeat Apollo". And it was pretty obvious, Neil does not really like to give speeches. He doesn't do media things very often. He is a private man.

It was just so crowded. So after a quick look around to see who we knew, we left. It was worth the experience, just to know those heros and great men were merely a room over from us! Close enough.