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NASA Stennis Space Center

NASA Stennis Space Center

  • Author: admin
  • Date Posted: Nov 4, 2006
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One of the best NASA sites we ever visited (possibly the best) was Stennis Space Center.  It’s the place where NASA tests their rockets.  It’s located in the southern tip of Mississippi in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, it’s so remote, you can’t get on the tour by driving there.  You pull off in a typical rest area, and wait for the NASA shuttle to stop by.  They take you to the center and museum for a few hours, and you take the shuttle back to your car at the rest area.  It’s wild.

We got to visit their space module park.

And we got to tour their museum.  They had a lot of artifacts.  They even had real Apollo mission capsules and other items.  Everything was straight from NASA, and nothing was dolled up or Disney-ified.   You got to see the actual tiles that heated up in the atmosphere.

At one point, Glenn stole a Commander’s Space Suit and tried running out of the building.

Outside the museum, they have a park of rockets and engines.  We wandered around the grounds checking out the interesting items on display.

Also, Stennis Space Center has bleachers for watching the rocket tests.  The tests are massive and shake the ground.  The burns are so extreme, that the accumulation of burnt oxygen and hydrogen causes the climate to change on test days.  So much enters the atmosphere, that it can make a sunny day sky produce rain.  The bleachers are covered just for this possibility.

So if you are in southern Mississippi, be sure to visit our favorite space center:  Stennis Space Center.

The second 2006 roadtrip was not conducted on alternative fuels.

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