Houston we have a problem

But Houston is of course widely known because of its NASA space center. While queuing for the tour the guy in front of me tried to explain his son where we were. He said (and this is NOT a joke!): "Remember the movie Armageddon? They were calling their base station in Houston. And that is... HERE!" I really had to laugh about that comparison but even I was able to understand that... maybe not such a bad explanation at all then ;-)

But beside the historical mission control center which was basically involved in every maned space mission and of course the new mission control for the space shuttle and ISS missions, they also have the astronaut training facility here. Basically they have a copy of each module on the space station, space shuttle, etc. in a big hanger to train astronauts. Due to the hurricane their roof was leaking that's why most of it was covered up.

And another great attraction here at NASA in Houston: you can touch a real moon stone! Here you can see me (or better my index finger) touching those stone. Remember the big fuss about the contamination by moon microbes in the 60s after the first moon landing? I hope it isn't me know who is wiping out humankind ;-)

Another entertaining element of the tour were the warning signs in different parts of the mission control building. This one might be not that entertaining for my English speaking readers but the combination of the direct translation of 'cell phone' which looks more like prison cells in German and the chosen word for 'switching off' is really funny. At least not everything is perfect even at NASA ;-)