Spent the day Sunday at Johnson Space Center. As always, anytime I go there I am truly amazed at what was accomplished with technology, by today's standards, is almost ancient. Houston and JSC was the epicenter of manned space flight and where the smartest and bravest men on the planet worked during the height of the "space race". While today it may not be as busy or as glamorous as it was in the 60's it is still the control center for NASA's manned space flight as well as a museum and learning center for the public.
Here is one of the newest additions, the shuttle replica Independence sitting atop the 747 transport plane
Other rockets that helped deliver the astronauts to orbit and the moon as are the space craft they piloted.
The Mercury Redstone rocket. The Redstone carried the first U.S. man into space.
Little Joe II, a critical test vehicle to make sure the abort systems worked in case of emergency
And of course the big boy, the Saturn V rocket which helped deliver man to the moon.
Three separate stages The massive engines of stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3, the part that carries the astronauts and the LEM
Part 2 is coming next, Inside JSC and a look at some other items from NASA's missions to the stars.