To the moon, Leah!
I guess I’m the luckiest – or most fortunate – dog in the world, having obtained a VIP tour of the Johnson Space Center outside Houston, TX the final Thursday in April. Because Mom is a good friend of broadcaster Paul Page, she was invited to take this insider’s visit of the facility that’s placed men and women on the moon and in the International Space Station.
That the visit occurred the day before NASA intended to send off the penultimate space shuttle from Kennedy Space Center in Florida meant the whole campus was electrified.
Normally, they don’t allow “pets” in the door at JSC, but because I’m a service animal and not technically a pet, I was the first dog allowed in secure areas of the compound. Mom kept telling me to take notes; that’s hard to do when you’re sniffing every corner of the place.
Our first stop was the shuttle mission simulator. I had to wait outside while mom, Paul, Dave Reiff and my uncle Piggy [Malone] each took a turn flying the simulator. Piggy went first – he volunteered – then Dave, then me and finally Paul. I waited outside with Kathy, our guide.
Mom said it was fun – the G forces when they took off were just up her alley, she said – and that she was nervous working with the tiller instead of a steering wheel. But she managed to land the shuttle without going off the runway – some other visitors have “crashed” the thing, she learned.
The pilot that “flew” our quartet in the simulator was Col Steve Lindsey, who has flown five shuttle missions, STS-133 being his final trip into space. He was so patient with everyone – maybe that’s part of the job prerequisites?
From there we went to the space shuttle flight control room, where everyone was intently preparing for the coming flight – which got postponed until at least Mothers Day – but they took the time to say hello and to let us wander around the floor. Nobody gets to do that, much less a dog.
We even visited the old Apollo era mission operations control room. It’s hard to believe, mom told me, knowing what’s happened since that time, that all that equipment managed to make it up into space with some rudimentary electronics and machinery guiding it. Talk about one step for mankind, ‘er dogkind.
Once we’d all been blown away by the simulator, the control rooms and the old-time equipment – even the in-space potty and food prep area – it was time to get into our van and drive to the Sonny Carter Training Facility were we experienced the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Unlike the balance of tourists in the viewing room high above the 100x 200-foot pool that’s 40-feet deep, we were able to venture almost to the edge.
Apparently, the astronauts in training spend six hours and have two divers that accompany them everywhere they go… the divers trade out every two hours in the pool, but the astronauts just keep working on the skills they’ll use in outer space. All of the work that goes into taking men and women into outer space is pretty darn amazing. I’m just glad I didn’t fall into the big pool; I’m not much of a water dog, you know.
After that it was off to the space vehicle mockup facility, AKA building 9. This is where real astronauts train for the International Space Station and for re-entry – something our US astronauts will be doing in a cramped Russian Soyuz capsule once the shuttles are retired after the next flight after this one.
We wandered throughout this huge room with so many mock-ups or duplicates of each part of the station – and the shuttle – in it and watched as potential ISS operatives tried to figure out where a fire was in the station and how to deal with it. The important thing, we learned, was not to do anything hastily, because the answer could be a wrong one that would jeopardize the entire community.
Why don’t they just use their noses like I do?
Soon our visit was over – we’d walked a lot, learned a lot and earned a great deal more respect for the folks who help keep our country out of this world.
I felt like a proud American doggie as I walked through the halls, close to the water, and sat in the flight director’s chair (sorry the photo is fuzzy, mom must have been laughing too hard). It was an experience I’ll never forget.
I sure wish I had kept all those notes because mom’s recorder decided to die with all the conversations on it. She was not happy about that!
After that we went to the racetrack, Royal Purple Raceway and took in the NHRA races. It was fun to see all of the people we like so well, like Tim Wilkerson, Eddie Krawiec and Tony Schumacher. I got to sit in some of those fancy, schmancy coaches. I think I like Tony’s best!
We’re home for another week and then off to Indianapolis for the “year of May”. I can’t wait to see Deb, Hector and Sierra (no) again. Mom’s right – I’m a very lucky dog.
About those pics, there's mom flying the sim, the big NBL pool, two of me and one of the shuttle mockup that all the bipeds insisted on climbing into...
Hope you enjoy!!
