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Guts of an X-38.

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Photo of an X-38 on final approach.

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Our tour guide brought us over to a research building, and peeking in through some small windows we watched a robotic research team hard at work. Another casualty of the new direction of NASA is the fantastic Hubble space telescope. The Shuttle will be used strictly for construction of the space station, so it won't be able to maintain Hubble, so it won't last much longer. The robotics being worked on here are for a hopeful unmanned repair mission to Hubble.

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Huge liquid nitrogen tanks.

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Adjacent to the Johnson Space Center - cows! This is actually unused NASA property leased to a farm. Really!

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Back in the visitor's center, in the gift shop, a cheesey-looking chess set of astronauts, planets, and shuttles.

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A sign from route 146 which we used several times in Houston. Just funny because we live nearby route 146 through the Blackstone Valley.

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The low price of gas in Houston. $1.74 for regular while it was over $2.00 back home.