Image of STS-132 Control Room 1. Click for larger. Image: Ken Buxton

I have a treat you today!  One of our readers, Ken Buxton, was one of the lucky winners of NASA’s Tweetup!  When I found out, I asked Ken if he could do a short write-up on the trip and his experience.  I am pleased to say he agreed and what a great job he did too.  I thank you for your wonderful effort Ken!

Before you start to read about Ken’s  trip, I want to point you to the pictures he took on the trip and of course to his website: The Computerbugg.

Without further delay, here is Ken’s trip:

NASA Tweetup May 19, 2010 Johnson Space Flight Center, Houston TX

A couple weeks ago I received an email stating I had been selected to attend a tweetup at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.  A tweetup is a special event sponsored by NASA for twitter followers.  I read it over and over, was this for real?  I remembered I had signed up for a tweetup that was posted by NASA on twitter.  You know, all those things you sign up for and never win.  As requested, I replied to the email and waited for confirmation.  Sure thing, I got a response saying I was accepted for a behind the scenes tour of JCS during the flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on   May 19th.  I quickly made airplane, hotel and rental car reservation, and waited for the big day.  I flew to Houston on the 17th, found my hotel, settled in and got ready for my tweetup.

The tweetup started with an informal meeting at a local restaurant the evening of the 18th.  I got to meet others on the tweetup as well as several of the NASA ambassadors who would be with us on our adventure and help us along and answer questions. There’s nothing like a bunch of space geeks getting together.

Our morning of the tweetup started at 8:00 am by checking in at the Space Center Houston.  Space Center Houston is adjacent to Johnson Space Flight Center and is an information and museum of manned space flight and is open to the public.  After checking in and having some more coffee, I wandered about the museum.  There were replicas of the Lunar Lander of Apollo, mock up of parts of the ISS and of the Space Shuttle.  I looked around and was surprised by the size of these machines, they were huge.  There was a Welcome Home sign for the crew of STS-132, which everyone was invited to sign.  Also available to look at was a glove warn by space walkers and a helmet.

At 9:00 we all met in an auditorium for the formal part of the day.  We were officially welcomed and introduced to NASA people who would help us through the day.  NASA scientist Talat Hussain made a presentation on the new Ku band antenna that had just been installed on the ISS.  This antenna will allow much more data to be transferred to and from the ISS, including better live television.  Next, the main speaker of the morning was Astronaut Jeff Williams. Jeff had just returned from several months aboard the ISS.   I especially enjoyed his descriptions of how it felt to be launched into space and then return.  There is quite a difference between how it feels in the Shuttle and how it feels in the Russian Soyuz.  Landing in the Shuttle is a breeze, while the Soyuz is a parachute landing with rockets that blast a moment before impact with the earth to give a “soft” landing.   He said there is nothing “soft” about the landing.  After his talk, I made sure I got my picture taken with him.

After lunch, we were off for a tour of the JCS.  First stop was Mission Control Center.  We sat in a gallery behind the STS Mission Control Center.  We were not allowed on the main floor because they were working, with a live shuttle in space.  Next we wound our way through a maze of corridors to the original Mission Control Center used for all the manned space flights of the 60’s and 70’s.  It has been designated a National Historical Site.  We were allowed on the main floor to look at the equipment that was used to monitor and control our mission to the moon.  Each console had a little 8” TV screen and a rotary dial phone.  On the wall was replica of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 11.  Along to walls were emblems of all the flights that were controlled by this center.  A real walk through history as I have been following the space program from the 50’s and I remember sitting in English class in High School while they broadcast through the PA system, a radio broadcast of Alan Shepard’s first manned launch into space.

From Mission Control we went to Building 9.  Building 9 is a huge structure, and inside are mock-ups of all the components of the ISS and Space Shuttle.  These mock-ups are used to train new astronauts and are also used to simulate any problems that occur in space to help find a solution.  Again, I was astounded by the immense size of everything.  Here we met with astronaut Stephen Robinson.  Dr Robinson has been with the shuttle program since 1975 and has served as CAPCOM for 13 shuttle missions.  He has flown on 4 shuttle missions, logging 1156 hours in space and performed 20 hours EVA.  He helped install piece of hardware to the Hubble space telescope and in 2005 performed the first repair of the shuttle heat shield.  He was asked what the stars look like from space, and he replied he was surprised on how the stars shine with different colors.

Still in Building 9, we met Astronaut Clayton Anderson.  In 2007 Mr Anderson spent 5 months aboard the ISS.   He described day to day life aboard the ISS.  He remembered getting to sleep and then waking up in the middle of the night and having to go to the bathroom, which was at the other end of the Space Station, then making that long fly from one end to the other and back again.  He finally decided it was easier for him to just wear a diaper to bed, and use that.  Someone asked about the food, and he said it wasn’t too bad, considering where they were.  He would not like to eat it here on earth, but is space it tasted pretty good.  He also said he preferred the Russian for over American food.

We looked at a mockup of the Russian Soyuz capsule.  It is probably the smallest container for 3 men that is possible.  While the “seats” in the shuttle resemble lawn chairs, the Russian seats are all custom molded to the person who will be using it.  When someone will be using the Soyuz capsule, they must travel to Russia several months before and be “fitted” with a seat.  You are immersed in a large vat of plaster of Paris and a mold is made of your body.  And a space suit is also made for you.  When sitting in the Soyuz capsule, you are lying on your back with your knees up against your chest.  Fortunately a ride from the ISS to the ground takes only about 22 minutes.

When we were finished with Building 9, we loaded into busses and drove a few miles south of JCS to the Sonny Carter Training Facility.  Sonny Carter was a popular astronaut who was killed in commercial airliner crash in 1991.  The Sonny Carter Training Facility contains the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.  The NBL is a large pool of water, 202 ft by 102 ft and 40 feet deep, containing 6.2 million gallons of water.  The NBL is used to simulate the weightlessness of space.  Astronaut space walkers train here so they will be able to function in space.  They wear specially designed suits that are similar to space suits but are pumped up with air to give them a neutral buoyancy.  In the pool are sections of the ISS and mock ups of the Shuttle.

Back on the buses, we headed back to JCS and, for me, the highlight of the day.  We arrived at an area called Rocket Park.  Rocket Park consists of a small area with a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule, just like Alan Shepard’s vehicle.  Next to that is an F-1 rocket engine, 5 of these engines powered the first stage of the Saturn V moon rocket, and next to them is the payload section of the Saturn V rocket.  Then there is a large building, over 100 yards long that contains a complete Saturn V rocket.  It is laying on its side with the sections separated, so you can see the rockets in each section.  Once again, I was astounded by the enormity of this vehicle.  In 1965, when I worked at NASA in Huntsville, AL, they did a static firing of the first stage of the Saturn V.  I was about 10 miles away, but could still see the enormous smoke plume and the ground vibrated like I had never felt before.  This is truly an awesome machine.

With the formal part of the tweetup ended, we adjourned to a local tavern to discuss and share our experiences of the day.  It was wonderful to be with a group of people who are excited about space travel as I am.