Houston, We Have a Problem

The phrase "Houston, we have a problem" has become a cliché; but for many of us who heard these words from the Apollo 13 crew, it brings back vivid memories. At the Space Center, we revisited this historic mission as well as looking forward to a Martian Landing. We visited the Space Center just days after President Bush announced the goal of a Mars Mission and the NASA folks were elated; excitement was at a fever pitch.

We decided that if we were going to spend the time there, we wanted to get the most of it. We elected the VIP Level 9 Tour, a four to five hour tour getting a behind the scenes look at NASA with access to the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, Mission Control for the Space Station and the Shuttle Mission, and the Historic Mission Control.

In addition to our Level 9 Tour, we spend hours viewing exhibits, demonstrations and watching great IMAX movies on the space program and the astronauts.

Clear Lake City is an exciting and vibrant area just outside of Houston, Texas with great restaurants, hotels and other family style attractions, and to Houston, this is NOT a problem.

Quick Tips:

If you live in the area, or plan to visit again within a year, the annual pass is a real bargain. After spending the day at the Space Center on a .95 ticket, you can trade it in for an annual pass for only an additional .80, plus you get free parking for any future visits.

The Level 9 Tour is offered only once each day, Monday through Friday and a maximum of 12 people on each tour. Be sure to call early for reservations.

Should you take the Level 9 Tour, you will not have much time that day to enjoy all the other features of the Space Center. Your Level 9 Tour Ticket will allow you to return the following day at no charge. Be sure to stop at the visitor’s desk at the front and put your name on the list for returning guests.

Two must-see video movies before your visit are The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. This will give you a good basis to the early beginnings of NASA and the reality of space travel.

Best Way To Get Around:

From Interstate 10, turn south on Interstate 45. Watch for the NASA signs. There are three exits. The NASA 1 Road is the best one to take. Follow the signs to the Space Center.

Parking is per day (unless you have an annual pass).

A home away from home. That is why we love the Homewood Suites, and the one in Clear Lake City was no different. From the time we walked into the beautiful lobby until we checked out, our stay was perfectly relaxing.

We chose this Homewood because of its close proximity to NASA. Clear Lake City is surrounded by everything “NASA” – the NASA Flower Shop, the NASA Coffee Shoppe, etc. It was the Clear Lake Area that was most popular with the Astronauts in the 70s and 80s. It was not unusual to see them driving their cool T-Birds or Corvettes through the streets of Clear Lake City. Times have changed somewhat, but Clear Lake remains a beautiful area.

Our suite was spacious, beautifully decorated, and exceptionally comfortable, but by no means surprising. It consisted of a fully equipped kitchen, dining area with table and chairs, living room with couch, recliner, TV, coffee table, separate bedroom with king bed and TV, dressing room and bathroom.

It is always the little details that I believe make a hotel stay memorable. Here are just a few of my favorites:

• Bottled drinking water in the suite, and sometimes small packages of cookies
• Free evening buffets Monday through Thursday
• Fresh fruit and hot coffee always available in the Lobby
• Large couch and recliner in the living room
• Extra large bath towels and the gigantic showerhead
• The refrigerator in the kitchen, a great place to store leftovers after a fabulous dinner
• Microwave for heating up those leftovers for late night snack
• The extra pillows on the bed

Of course, the hotel has many of the standard amenities such as a swimming pool, executive center, and workout room.

The breakfast buffet was far more than the typical Continental Breakfast: hot, fluffy biscuits and gravy (it’s a Southern thing), scrambled eggs, waffles, bagels, Danish, fruit, yogurt, juices, milk and coffee.

The most impressive feature we enjoyed was the sound of silence, which gave a sense of peace and tranquility; something we cherish so much.

Located on the access road of I.H. 10 and Frontage Road just east of Beltway 8 in West Houston, the Taste of Texas Restaurant is surrounded by great competitors vying for your dining dollars. But I promise, you will not regret choosing this restaurant. Be prepared for a wait, usually 30 minutes to 45 minutes; enjoy the large bar or the free soft drinks, popcorn or chips or salsa. Be careful, though; don’t spoil your appetite.

The restaurant can be anything from casual to dressy, depending on your occasion. Although it is quite large, the seating areas area divided into smaller areas, giving you an intimate feeling. We were welcomed with a complimentary appetizer of salsa/cream cheese and crisp bread. Just a little something to keep your mouth busy while your brain is trying to decide on the menu.

Harry and I started with the jalapeno stuffed shrimp; four large golden fried shrimp with melted Monterrey Jack Cheese and mild jalapeno peppers oozing from the inside, and a wonderful cilantro cream sauce for dipping.

Next was the Salad Bar; a wonderful array of fresh veggies and fruit. My favorite was the toasted pecans and the raspberry dressing. At the end of the Salad Bar is the Bread Counter- small loafs of break, rolls, cornbread and muffins, and four flavored butters to choose from.

And then, the piece de resistance, the incredibly tender, flavorful beef. My choice was the 6 oz bacon wrapped filet mignon; Harry’s was the 10oz prime rib. The steak was served on a hot metal plate in the shape of a cow that kept the steak and garlic butter sizzling hot throughout the meal.

At Taste of Texas they are very proud of their Certified Angus Beef and will gladly explain why to you. All I know it that it was the best steak I had ever eaten. They were awarded the MSN City Search’s Best Steakhouse in 2003 and also honored with the Award of Excellence by the Wine Spectator magazine for the past nine years.

Of course, in addition to beef, the Taste of Texas also offers lobster and other seafood. If you are celebrating a special occasion, anniversary, birthday, graduation, be sure to tell you waiter when he asks (and he will). You will have your choice of complimentary champagne or dessert.

Although we were bursting at the seams, we couldn’t resist our "free" dessert. Even though our waiter kept insisting that we get TWO free desserts we settled on one Key Lime pie with cinnamon flavored coffee.

No matter what the occasion for going to this restaurant, it will be a memorable experience.

The Space Center is the official Visitor’s Center for the Johnson Space Center and is located at 1601 NASA Road, in the Clear Lake area. It is owned and operated by the Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, and working closely with NASA, it provides guests with access to information and ideas of what our future might be.

One of the highlights of the Space Center is the Mazda Theater, a beautiful IMAX theater showing several different shows throughout the day. Our favorite presentation was "Inside the Space Station". It is a 50 minute film that lets you explore the Space Station up close and personal. The film demonstrates how humans will live in space for extended periods of time, what they will eat and the work they will do.

It also introduced Robonaut, a humanoid robot that will be attached to the outside of the Space Station. Robonaut will be available to make repairs that would be too dangerous or tedious for humans (similar to the Star Wars’ R2D2.) The most unique thing about him is the hands; they move and react like a human hand and the operator of the robot can actually feel what the mechanical hands feel.

The presentation ends with the Mars landing of Spirit and Opportunity with animation that make you feel you are there.

Located in the Starship Gallery is the Destiny Theatre. Here we watched a short film entitled On Human Destiny. As the film ends, the large doors open at the side and invite guests to enter into the night sky of the Starship Gallery. We viewed the original Goddard Rocket and Faith 7, the Mercury capsule flown by Gordon Cooper and also his Gemini V Capsule. There are many historical and highly recognizable pieces of equipment including the Skylab trainer, the Lunar Rower Vehicle trainer. Allow at least 45 minutes to enjoy the Starship Gallery.

The Space Center is a great place for children. There are many video-type games and virtual reality experiences that will help them get the feel for space exploration, and a great play structure call Kids Space Place to expend some of their never-ending energy. There are also visiting exhibits; when we were there, Dinosaurs ruled the day.

Tram Tours are free and leave every 60 to 90 minutes. You can visit the Historic Mission Control, Hanger X and Rocket Park in an open-air tram.

This close-up and personal behind the scenes tour is well worth the $62.00 ticket. It is advertised as a 4-hour tour, but ours lasted over five and we wanted it to last longer. The tour is presented only once a day beginning at 11:45, Monday through Friday and is limited to twelve (12) people.

We met our guides at the assigned time and meeting place near the Tram Tour and received our VIP badges. There were 10 guests and two guides that made up our group. We boarded a small NASA Bus and drove from the Space Center through the NASA Security Gates to Building 3, the Astronaut’s Cafeteria, so called because it is adjacent to the Astronauts’ official offices.

We were each give a $4.50 credit ticket and we could choose between the daily special, burgers and fries or the salad bar. Our choice was the special- Southern Fried Chicken, twice baked potatoes and a choice of steamed vegetables. The food was delicious. Unfortunately, there were no astronaut sightings. While at the Astronaut’s Cafeteria, we visited the small gift shop. This is the best place to buy souvenirs because they do not charge any sales tax and the items are slightly cheaper. I don’t know why no tax- maybe its considered an intergalactic site not covered by any earthy domain. Harry had his eye on a NSAS cap and I was taken with the beautiful mission pins that all the employees wear with great pride.

Our next stop was at the Sonny Carter Training Facility’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. The NBL is also known as the world’s largest swimming pool, measuring 102 feet x 102 feet and is 40 feet deep. Through the crystal clear water we could see a mockup of the Orbiter’s Payload Bay and modules of the Space Station. We could see two astronauts working on one of the modules. The objective of this training mission was to close a pass-through hatch. It sounded like a simple task to us, but in this weightless environment and in the full spacesuits, it was difficult. It appeared the astronauts had been working on it for several hours, and could continue until they got the procedures down pat.

Next was Building 32, the Space Training Facility Lab and the Zero Gravity Chamber, where the Martian Landing Unit was tested for its bouncing characteristics. The chamber was depressurized to create an atmosphere similar to that on Mars. This test gave NASA an advance idea on how the Martian Lander would perform the delicate landing. This site was another one of many that simply blew our minds- the shear size dwarfed our stature. We felt so tiny. If you saw the movie "Armageddon", you might recognize this area.

Hanger X houses mock-ups of not only the space shuttle, but also all of the individual modules for the International Space Station. We were able to view them from the catwalk high above, giving us a great vantage point.

Our last stop was Rocket Park, the outdoor display of the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo rockets. It is amazing standing close by these giant masses of metal that once took Americans into space.

The Level 9 Tour was coming to an end. Our heads were filled with so much information and excitement; we could hardly wait for the next day to complete our visit to the Space Center.

It all began on October 1, 1958 when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was born with this simple statement: ". . . to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere and for other purposes". Just one year before on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the Sputnik 1. The race was on.

Project Mercury (1961-1963) was designed to see if man could survive in space and on May 5, 1961 Alan Shepard, Jr. rode a Mercury Capsule on a 15-minute suborbital mission. John Glenn was the first American Astronaut to orbit the Earth in 1962.

Project Gemini (1965-1966) consisted of 10 flights and introduced the two-man spacecraft. On June 3, 1965, Gemini 4 Astronaut, Edward H. White, Jr. became the first American to walk in space.

Then came Project Apollo (1968-1972). In response to President John F. Kennedy announcement on May 25, 1961, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" Apollo 11 put the first humans on the Moon with the famous quote by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 " that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" fulfilling Kennedy’s dream.

And who could forget the Apollo 13 near-disaster, when the cliché "Houston, we have a problem" came into being.

From this beginning came satellites in space (Echo, Telstar, Relay and Syncom) Skylab, the Space Shuttle program, launching and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station, countless scientific discoveries and just recently the successful landing of the Sprit and Opportunity on the Martian surface, which may point to the possibility that life may has or still exists out there!

Of course, there have been tragedies along the way. In 1967, Roger Chaffe, Gus Grissom and Edward White died in a fire in their Apollo capsule while on the ground. In 1986 The Challenger crew was lost when the main liquid fuel tanks exploded just after liftoff and in 2002 Columbia disintegrated over the U.S. killings all onboard after a successful mission in space.

NASA Quote: Our exploration of space has taught us to view the Earth, ourselves and the universe in a new way. While the tremendous technical and scientific accomplishments of NASA demonstrate vividly that humans can achieve previously inconceivable feats, we also are humbled by the realization that Earth is just a tiny "blue marble" in the cosmos,