Day 76 12/9 Wednesday, NASA

A fantastic day was had by all of us at the Houston NASA centre with only a bit of hiccup for Heather and Paul. In the morning they had managed to change their internal flight to avoid the hurricane. They had been told that they would now leave tomorrow and fly to JFK with a stop-over in Philadelphia but when Paul received the email, it said that that they were meant to be on a plane today! Anyway it’s all sorted now. Our day at NASA was brilliant. We started the day with a trolley train tour of the whole area of the space centre, calling into the original astronaut training centre, mission control centre and a massive shed that housed the Saturn V rocket. In the mission control centre we were able to sit in the observation seats that are behind the glass. These seats were the original seats from back in 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and were set aside for the families of the astronauts, dignitaries and celebrities. Rob actually sat in a seat that was next to a seat that the Queen had sat in. The exciting thing about this area was that it was all being repaired and restored to look and operate just the way it would have been in 1969. They are still doing the restoration work and this is going to be all completed in time for the 50^th anniversary of the landing on the moon next year. Even the old control panels are going to be operational. I could write pages and pages on how brilliant this place was and what fantastic experiences we had including going into the Space shuttle Independence (2 levels) and also into the jumbo that carried the shuttle. Unbelievable! I also actually really touched the Apollo 17 re-entry capsule. I will stop now and you will need to rely on the photos but if ever you are in Houston…you must make a trip to NASA it shouldn’t be missed.