NASA, JPL, SPACEX, Virgin Galactic, Keck, etc tours?

[motion]

Anyone have any inside info on tours? Could even be pricey VIP style. I'd love to get more involved. Thanks for any info

[red-beard]

I was just at the Nasa level 9 tour yesterday at Johnson Space Center.

[sammyg2]

If NASA offers tours, I bet Virgin galactic does it better for 1/100th the cost

[red-beard]

Comparison of the regular tour vs. Level 9.

In the regular tour you go in a little road tram with about 75-100 people. Takes about 1 hour and you get to see:

A split up Saturn 5, actual components made up of Apollo 18 through 20 parts.
Visitors gallery of Historic Mission Control
Catwalk tour of the training and mock-up facility

Level 9 - Maximum 12 people, 1 tour per day, about 5 hours and you see

the Saturn 5
Lunch at Employee Cafeteria adjacent to the Astronaut offices
Drive to the Neutral Buoyancy lab - always see astronauts training there
Visitors gallery of International space station Control room with discussion with some of the control people
Historic Mission Control - you get to go into the room and sit at and play with the consoles. Usually the regular people are in the visitors gallery while you are there
Ground floor tour of the training and mockup facility. If the trainers are open, you get to look inside. We saw the ISS units, Orion Mockup, new ISS parts being mocked up, new lunar rovers/habitation modules and the robotics lab.
They used to also show the vacuum chamber, but it is being refurbished at this time.

[Nostril Cheese]

JPL has an open house every year in the spring, last I remember..

[Hawktel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-KxHa2HWwQ



At around 1.10 he pulls back and you can see a bunch of people in front of him. I'm in that crowd.

Seriously cool stuff.

[motion]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Comparison of the regular tour vs. Level 9.

In the regular tour you go in a little road tram with about 75-100 people. Takes about 1 hour and you get to see:

A split up Saturn 5, actual components made up of Apollo 18 through 20 parts.
Visitors gallery of Historic Mission Control
Catwalk tour of the training and mock-up facility

Level 9 - Maximum 12 people, 1 tour per day, about 5 hours and you see

the Saturn 5
Lunch at Employee Cafeteria adjacent to the Astronaut offices
Drive to the Neutral Buoyancy lab - always see astronauts training there
Visitors gallery of International space station Control room with discussion with some of the control people
Historic Mission Control - you get to go into the room and sit at and play with the consoles. Usually the regular people are in the visitors gallery while you are there
Ground floor tour of the training and mockup facility. If the trainers are open, you get to look inside. We saw the ISS units, Orion Mockup, new ISS parts being mocked up, new lunar rovers/habitation modules and the robotics lab.
They used to also show the vacuum chamber, but it is being refurbished at this time.

I want Level 9

Any tips on how to get it going?

[red-beard]

Sign up on the website:

Space Center Houston - Level 9 Tour

[motion]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Sign up on the website:

Space Center Houston - Level 9 Tour

Perfect!

And, just came across this: Inside NASA's Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center -- Engadget

[intakexhaust]

That Level 9 Tour looks great. I'm overdue and now on the calendar for the Fall.

Last tour I took was in '74 at Kennedy. The shuttle was just an artist rendering hanging on a wall. Going in the Saturn 5 assembly building was mind boggling. The launch crawler, Gemini, Redstones cool to see. We walked through part of the Mercury control room and recall how primitive it was. Greyish green plank porch floors, lights at work stations looked like something out of Batman.

[djantlive]

I did a basic tour of Nasa Kennedy space center. It was a waste of time. I left there thinking what a sad day it is for Nasa. They used to have a mission and now it's gone. I hope the military is working on something cool but we'll never see it.

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by djantlive

I did a basic tour of Nasa Kennedy space center. It was a waste of time. I left there thinking what a sad day it is for Nasa. They used to have a mission and now it's gone. I hope the military is working on something cool but we'll never see it.

(That is too bad. Glad I went back then and will make a note to dig up the photo's.)

The military has always been involved, its just that we never hear of it. The original moon mission was heavily influenced for military reasons (Russia and the cold war) but of course not viewed to the rest of the world as such.

Here's a really neat program to watch:
NOVA | Astrospies

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

If NASA offers tours, I bet Virgin galactic does it better for 1/100th the cost

1/100th <------- Your missing a couple zeros here.