Houston, we have 49!
2025-04-10
Houston TX and Natchez MS
I started the day at Space Center Houston. This is where Mission Control is located for all manned space missions. They don't open until 10:00 AM, and that means that there is no way to beat the literal hoards of kids on their field trips. On the other hand, the museum itself is pretty small, with only a few artifacts. They were choosy and went for some of the best stuff.
I took the astronaut training tour, which I though might show us centrifuges or diving tanks. It turned out to just be a gallery view of the training versions of the current space craft. They had a full ISS and the various travel modules, including Orion, Starliner, and even Soyuz for the astronauts to familiarize themselves.
They also had some outside exhibits. They had a Falcon 9 booster that had been used twice and a space shuttle that was used for training on the actual 747 that was employed to haul them around. First it took the shuttle up so that aeronautics could be measured and proven, then took it up with astronauts on board, and finally released the shuttle so that landing could be tested. After that it was used to transport several shuttles across the country. They had to add a lot of weight to the 747 to get it to balance correctly, including several tons of pea gravel in the front of the cargo section. They stripped the interior to make it lighter and welded in some reinforcement. They did leave in some of the first class seats, but it wasn't first class with all the insulation removed; it was cold.
They also have a complete Saturn V rocket. They claim it is the last one that is complete, with the ones at Huntsville and Cape Canaveral missing something (but they weren't specific as to what). Although I don't think it's ready to fly, it really is cool to walk around these things.
After visiting the Space Center, I headed off to Natchez MS. It was about a five hour drive. I had no hotel booked and I stopped at a couple of the chain hotels which were mostly booked and wanted $200/night. While poking on my phone, I found out that the Natchez Grand Hotel had same-day rates of $99. It's a gorgeous hotel, just up a hill overlooking the Mississippi river. I even got a river view room.
The Grand also had a guest laundry, so I have clean clothes while I wrote this. Mississippi is the 49th state I've visited. I did see it yesterday on the way to Houston, but now I've gotten to see a town and not just the I-10 corridor. I'm practically a ten-year resident.