Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Summary: A very brief visit to the Houston Space Centre although interesting, left me comparing it to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Our next stop and visit was the Houston Space Centre, the official visitor centre for NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre. I have visited the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida many times, but this was my first time in Houston, and I found myself preferring the experience here, especially the chance to see Mission Control.
The control room was fully operational during our visit, with staff quietly working at their stations. We were allowed to ask a few questions, so I couldn’t resist asking what operating system they used. The answer made me laugh. They rely on their own proprietary system because, as they put it, Windows crashes too much. I immediately pictured a shuttle launch being delayed because a computer decided it was time for a forced update.
It was a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of human spaceflight and a reminder that even in the most advanced facilities, the small details matter.
Fun Fact
The famous phrase “Houston, we’ve had a problem” was first heard in Mission Control at the Johnson Space Centre during the Apollo 13 mission. The original wording was slightly different from the movie version, but the drama was very real.
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