Weekend Travels Part 2 - Huntsville, AL

Instead of making a day trip in the car, we decided to take the RV and camp in Huntsville. We found a campground right next to the US Space & Rocket Center, which will be our destination on Saturday. Both the Center and the campground have the same address, 1 Tranquility Base.

As we drive into Huntsville, we see a Saturn V rocket that is lit up at night. Standing 363 feet tall, it can be seen for miles. This is a replica of an actual Saturn V rocket. After getting to the campground and parking, we head for some dinner and then drive around the Space Center to get the lay of the land. We also see a space shuttle outdoor display, also lit up. The orbiter Pathfinder, is the only full-stack shuttle exhibit in the nation. It looms more than 80 feet above the ground and has a wing span of 78 feet.

View 1 At night

View 2 Daytime From the front showing the rockets and the fuel cell 

We start off with touring part of the Space & Rocket Center. We've decided to take in the movie "Journey to Space" in the IMAX theater. This movie addressed our efforts to go to Mars by 2032. Then at 12:30 we boarded a bus to go to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center where we are able to see the Payload Operations and Integration Center, where they handle the day to day operations (science experiments) of the International Space Station.

It was the weekend so not as many people were working. When employees arrive for their shift, they are at their desks for 8 hours. They can take short breaks when the space station is out of communication. Each desk is a separate operation. For instance, one desk is the stowage - it handles where everything is on the space station.

The Space Flight Center is located on the Redstone Arsenal (Army) base. We also toured several testing sights, and the vibration building (where they tested how much the rockets would vibrate).

  Redstone Test Stand, a national historic landmark. 

There was so much to see! We saw the Apollo 16 capsule, a Mercury capsule, an Apache helicopter simulator, numerous rockets and mockups of the SLS (Space Launch System) which will take crew and cargo services to the International Space Station and to Mars.

By far the most exciting exhibit is the Saturn V rocket in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration. The sheer enormity of the rocket and space ship, which can be viewed up close and personal, is amazing.

View from the bottom of Saturn V

From the side

Lunar Module (LM) Eagle & Land Rover

Capsule in which the astronauts came back to earth

Mockup of SLS which will take us to Mars

Close-up of men at the bottom of the SLS mock-up to give indication of size of the rockets 

This was a fun day and we learned a lot about space history, current day space exploration and the future. The Space and Rocket Center also hosts Space Camp for kids and adults (you could do it as a family). If you're in the Huntsville area, we recommend stopping here.