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Old 11-23-2016, 05:52 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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THE biggest problem with the NASA Visitor Centers is, they're no longer run by NASA... they're run by some amusement park company operator who runs them as "for profit" businesses on "NASA's behalf".

As such, they basically are doing just whatever is going to have the highest bang/buck return for them, IMHO. They're not really interested in "conserving" the historical artifacts like rockets and vehicles and stuff and presenting the most historically accurate and inspiring displays of the achievements of NASA and the space program-- they've turned it into a sort of space-related "Chucky Cheese" type thing with fun-n-games and the actual space program artifacts and history are an "afterthought". Take the "Space Center Houston" for example.

When I was a kid in the 70's, we went to the REAL "Lyndon Baines Johnson Space Center Visitor Center" back when it was in (IIRC) Building 1 inside the JSC grounds... basically you drove in past the guard shack past the Saturn V and parked in the main parking lot near the entrance. The displays inside were interesting and historical-- the old F-1 and H-1 and J-2 engines sat outside the visitor center entrance, and inside were a lot of historical artifacts, models, helmets to try on, lots of cool stuff... It's kind of hard to remember it all now since that was 40 years ago...

Fast forward to now. "Space Center Houston" opened in the late 80's/early 90's, just off the JSC grounds outside the main entrance. There's one "starship gallery" museum part of SCH, (stupid name for the museum part IMHO) with Faith 7, Gordo's Mercury capsule, a mock-up of Explorer 1, our first satellite, a Gemini capsule, LM trainer, a fiberglass model of the Saturn V hanging from the roof, some "wall displays" of various reprinted poster-boards of newspapers and stuff, with some gloves and other "space program bits-n-pieces, the Apollo 17 CM, and a display of the 'surface of the Moon' with rocks and instruments, a rover, and a couple lunar surface suits presumably with mannequins inside. There's some of the stuff from the old "lunar receiving lab" where they experimented on the lunar rock and dust samples as they came back, which then leads to the Skylab mock-up trainer and a mini-shuttle display, including a launch stack and aerodynamic test model of the orbiter, along with a passing mention in displays of the Skylab program, including a burned-up piece of the original Skylab retrieved from the Outback of Australia, and some food and shoes and trinkets and a couple models, including a VERY brief description of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. There's a full-scale mock-up of the shuttle flight deck across the way, a LM hanging from the ceiling outside the "starship gallery" and an SSME sitting beside the shuttle mockup. There's some suits in tube displays between that and the ISS model and module mockup display, and the rest of the center is given over to the "traveling displays" which are front and center and usually have little/NOTHING to do with space... from "gross-ology" to NASCAR and other such fluff, except it has all kinds of interactive hoo-hoos to keep the kiddo's busy so they don't have to "learn anything". The main gift shop takes up the other corner and the mini-gift shop is between the commissary and the sign-up for the tram tour which is like getting approval to go into a missile base... and of course the obligatory "noise area" where you go experience a "real" shuttle launch thanks to reverbing speakers overcranked to make tons of noise to a tape of the sounds of a shuttle launch... which leads into an anteroom where some "PR guest of the day" actual NASA employee (usually a doctor or technician) gives a "briefing" of what NASA's up to at the present time.

I mean, it's good... but it could be SO much better! Funny me, thinking a space program museum should be about, oh, I dunno... the SPACE PROGRAM?? Oh, and lest I forget, there's the HUGE 'Chucky Cheese' area with the ball pit, "rover driving", weightlifting on the various planets, etc kiddie play area which takes up the entire corner of the entry area...

OH well... Just goes to prove--- EVERYTHING is for sale... NASA would rather "farm it out to somebody else" than run their own visitor centers...

Later! OL J R: )
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