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Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images
When I spent the night at the Houston Space Center, I had over 250,000 square feet and about 400 artifacts (almost) for me.
When I spent the night at Space Center Houston, I had more than …
From the moment I was able to read Dr. Seuss' most basic rhymes, I wanted to live in my local library.
It was not that it was an excellent library: frankly, she was small and she had clearly withstood several years of budget cuts.
But I could think of nothing better than having millions of pages of adventures, mystery and suspense to me after the lights went out and the doors closed for the night.
I have never managed to get there (despite my many attempts to close at closing time), but when I woke up last weekend under a fuel cell of the era Apollo, I realized that I had reached the adult version of my dream.
I locked myself up at Space Center Houston, the museum side of NASA's Johnson Space Center. And I did not even have to hide in a spaceship to do it.
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It was exciting to know that I did not need to leave when a voice above the speaker counted up to the closing time: 30 minutes to closing – 15 , 10 and finally five. The lights went out in the museum's exhibits, the barriers collapsed in front of the two gift shops and most of the employees gathered their belongings and rushed to the outside of the entrance gates, now locked.
Of course, it was not a library, with its piles on stacks of books that only ask to be opened. But I had over 250,000 square feet and about 400 artifacts (almost) for me.
Looking for adventure? Visit the Starship Gallery to see the Apollo 17 capsule, which took astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on NASA's last voyage to the moon in 1972, and the module used to train astronauts at SkyLab, the first space station of the agency. 1973 to 1974.
Looking for a mystery? Visit the Mission to Mars exhibition, where you can touch a Martian rock and learn about the main challenges of the agency to get there.
Looking for suspense? Check out the array of space suits the center has exhibited and wonder how, in the world, some of the older models have kept people alive.
These exhibits and artifacts are impressive when the museum is teeming with people of all ages and nationalities. But being able to study each of these artifacts in a calm and unmuzzled atmosphere was wonderful.
I learned so much more this way.
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And even though I go every two months to the Houston Space Center, I 've discovered something that I' ve never seen before: a huge mural of astronaut is painted towards the top. back of the museum, near the place where you jump in a tram. The mural was painted by Al Bean, my favorite Apollo astronaut.
Bean was the fourth man on the moon, an accomplished painter and a wonderfully kind man. He also died recently, which broke my heart and made his mural all the more moving.
Photo: NASA through the New York Times, HO / NYT
Astronaut Alan Bean, right, with his teammates from Apollo 12, Pete Conrad, left, and Richard Gordon. Bean died in May at age 86.
Astronaut Alan Bean, right, with his teammates from Apollo 12, Pete …
I do a lot of amazing things as the only NASA reporter on the Chronicle. I interviewed astronauts, I stood on the floor of the control room of the mission and climbed into spaceship models inducing claustrophobia. But the beauty of my museum adventure this past weekend is that for $ 60 per person, anyone can do it.
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I always want to live in a library. But for now, my adventure in the space center will do the trick.
Alex Stuckey (@alexdstuckey) written on NASA, science and the environment for the Chronicle. Read more about his work here.
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