So, after all the happenings of the last day 2 post I thought I best carry on with the rest of the day. After leaving the Saturn V room we went into a small cinema room where they were going to show the events of the Apollo 11 moon landed. It had a real life fake landing craft and everything. Now, I like to be very sceptical about the whole concept of the moon landing, did they actually go to the moon, or did they just go to Philadelphia? This show did little or nothing to prove either theory right or wrong.

Next stop on the bus tour was the future. Basically the first two stops had all been about what NASA (and more importantly the United States of God Damn American) had achieved, we were now heading into the current activities and the plans for the future. Not surprisingly, most of it sounded like a sales pitch, trying to get funding, I wonder how many of these speeches/expo’s they had showed potential investors and the government in the past. NASA are quick to try and convince you that they are fundamental in the implementation of the Space Station. This is a combined project by 16 nations, which were not mentioned. They were quick to tell everyone that they are the only ones who can fly sections of the Space Station into space to be docked/added to what is already there. Of course, under his breathe almost, the guide said that Russia “demand” to fly their own stuff up. It’s there stuff, how is it “demanding”? I will touch on this more in a post I started writing yesterday all about why the USA joined the space race etc. Hopefully starting a somewhat controversial debate.

Back to the tour, they let us walk through some fake Space Station pieces before heading over to another building where they perform pressure checks and electrical requirement tests on all pieces that are sent to NASA to send to the Space Station. The items were tested to see how they would react when there was no pressure being exerted on them, basically if we went up into space we would pop (as you see on most cartoons). A really busy looking room, with lots of high tech expensive materials, but clearly there aint much going up any time soon as they were only 2 cleaners in the room at around 4pm. Maybe a company training day?

This was somewhat of a let down for the end of the tour, no where near as exciting as seeing the big rockets etc. We headed back to the main complex where we had just about time to pop into the Imax cinema to have Tom Hanks (the irony) talk us through the space landings and a 3D look at walking on the moon. This was actually really good, I have been in Imax’s before and the concept is cool and works well. Having a spaceman kick dirt at you and boot you in the face adds to the experience. They also took the piss out of the conspiracy theories which I thought was clever.

Last but not least, the shuttle experience

A simulator which replicates a Shuttle take off. FUN FUN FUN, Basically it points you facing upwards and shakes the hell out of your chair. Makes you feel like there are a number of G’s pushing against your face. If I had had time would of definitely gone again, shame it was 7 and time to get out of the park.

We popped into Steak and Ale on the way home, had a 12ounce steak, not great but edible and filled the hole that had grown inside me. Onto day 3…