Today we got to experience something that few civilians get to tour on the floor. Jared told me last week they were having a MOD (Mission Operation Directorate) Family Day. About once every five years they have this day and open most of the facilities. The last time we went we got to go on the floor but today they had all the astronaut training modules open to walk through AND we actually got a tour pool side of the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab). Which made me nervous having Eliza standing 24" from one of the largest pools in the world by volume. This baby is 40' deep.
Poolside at the NBL
One of my favorite tours was walking through the full size space station mock up. I get really claustrophobic, as even I had to duck through the capsules openings. Jared kindly reminded me that in space you can use all the area and not just the floor so it seems “bigger”. Floating or not it's tight quarters for six months.
Inside the Space Station Astronaut Training Center
It always amazes me to visit JSC and learn about the shuttle program and today as I watched Jared share his excitement about space flight with Erin (who is a budding space geek) it made me sad to think we are looking at the end of an era. The shuttle will retire this spring, possibly summer if we are lucky.
I think one reason they opened up everything today was for company morel. Come the first week of October, 1/3 of the people in Jared's area are getting laid off. We were blessed to make it through this cut, but its sad to see people who have worked so hard say goodbye. It makes for an unsure year for everyone. It will be interesting what the next step will be in space flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment