NASA Space Center – Huntsville, Alabama
While in Nashville we took a day and made the drive down to Huntsville, AL and took in the NASA Space Center. I remember my grandparents bringing me here as a kid and just being in awe of the size of the space shuttles, as a grown up that awe hasn't changed!
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You can see the most famous space shuttle from the parking lot. The whole space center is spread out and huge and there is plenty of walking to do!
When entering the center, you walk through a walkway that is just like the astronauts walk to get into the space shuttle
The first footprint on the moon
They had a children's inventor's corner where they could build with foam pieces. The kids had a blast!
Even my youngest got involved
They had a scale where you could see how much you weighed on the moon and mars.
Coke Cans that have been in space!
They had a small cafe for lunch
Then we headed outside and got a look at space shuttles up front. Look at how huge this one is!
A little info about the shuttle stack, the Pathfinder at the top is where the astronauts are. The brown piece is the external tanks and rocket boosters to get them INTO space, that comes off at some point before they return to Earth.
From there we went to, what my kids dubbed ‘The Rocket Garden'
We hit the 2nd building and they had a rocket hanging from the ceiling!
They had a great hands-on area for the kids to run around and run off some steam. It was set up like the launch headquarters.
They got to pop their heads in some bubbles and become astronauts.
They got to test out what it felt like getting ready to launch in the space shuttle! They had to lay down to get in!
Then we learned about the quarantine procedures once they come back from space and got to tour one of the quarantine airstreams. The kids were excited because it was an RV.
It was a pretty small space with the basic bunk beds.
And a little living area with some things to do.
Then on the walk back to the main entrance baby girl passed out on daddy!
We also got our picture that was taken when we came in.
