U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville

It rained off and on most of yesterday, so we just stayed here at the campground and took it easy.

This morning we left about 10:00 and drove the 57 miles to Huntsville to go to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center there. Before going to the Space Center, we stopped at a Five Guys and had our usual meal - little bacon cheeseburgers and fries (Cajun fries, today).

We got to the Space Center about 12:20, parked the car and walked up to the entrance where we saw this SR-71.

From US Space & Rocket Center

We got a map of the Center at the Guest Services Desk and then went to the Ticket Sales

and purchased our tickets ($20 each). Our first stop was at the Wernher Von Braun exhibit where we saw displays of the rockets he worked on and displays depicting his life in Huntsville.

From US Space & Rocket Center

There were a lot of school children at the Space Center today on field trips.

From US Space & Rocket Center

We passed through an Army exhibit (the Center is next to Redstone Arsenal)

From US Space & Rocket Center

and then we went outside to the Space Shuttle Park where we saw the Pathfinder Space Shuttle, an orbiter simulator.

From US Space & Rocket Center

Our next stop was at the Rocket Park

From US Space & Rocket Center

and then we went into the Discovery Center to the Saturn V display.

From US Space & Rocket Center

The Apollo 16 capsule from the fifth mission to land men on the moon is on display there

From US Space & Rocket Center

and we could see the damaged tiles from re-entry on the bottom of the capsule.

From US Space & Rocket Center

We stopped at the main gift shop before leaving to buy a couple of souvenirs and then took 1 more photo of the SR-71

From US Space & Rocket Center

and had our photo taken with the Apollo rocket in the background.

From US Space & Rocket Center

We decided to take a different route back to the campground and drove east out of Huntsville toward Scottsboro, across the Tennessee River and south to the campground - a trip of 67 miles. We arrived back here at 4:00.

We had a good time today at the Space Center; we must have, Mike took 180 photos. I did narrow our photos down and only put 75 of them in the photo album.