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I am currently in Houston, Texas so I spent the day at Johnson Space Center. I signed up for the level 9 tour. What does that mean? Well, the web page said I would get a behind the scenes look at what the astronauts do. Some of you know that I have put my application in for the 2009 Astronaut Class. So, this was a chance for me to see my next (hopefully) home.

I am really glad that I took the Level 9 tour because when I walked in the door it was kid overload!

But the tour soon started and I was saved. We first headed to the Sonny Carter Training Facility. This is where the astronauts train for space walk missions. The facility enables astronauts to get a feeling for space by providing a neutral buoyancy environment. This week and next week the facility is going through maintenance.

We then headed for the astronaut training facility where they have a full-size mock up of the International Space Station. STS-124 installed the Japanese Kibo section on the last mission.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if there was an emergency on the space station? Well, attached to the station is a Russian built Soyuz Capsule. The capsule holds 3 people and it is currently the Russians main mode of transport to and from the space station.

The best part of the tour was visiting mission control. STS-124 has just finished a trip to the International Space Station and is 24 hours away from landing at Kennedy Space Center. Check out my video below or to see my blog on the actual launch go to: http://web.mac.com/doctor.proctor/Site/Shuttle_Launch/Shuttle_Launch.html

Mission Control from psyan on Vimeo.

Here is a closeup of the Mission Control screen. You can see where Discovery is currently located and it also shows the position of satellites. Discovery is just off the west coast of the United States.

Our last stop was to the old Mission Control during the Apollo missions. I can only imagine what it was like to work at NASA during those days. I of course was born on Guam because my father was working for NASA during Gemini through Apollo 13. I only wish he was still around to tell me stories about those days. Do you think I would make a good Flight Director? On second thought, I’d rather be an astronaut!