Houston Space Center Campout for Scouts!

Mission Control Center

I bet not many of you knew that there was a overnight stay option available for the Houston Space Center next to NASA's Johnson Space Center.  If you've never heard of Johnson Space Center in Houston then that's a whole other problem by itself  :)

But Space Center Houston is the companion site to Johnson Space Center (you know..........Houston, we have liftoff......Houston we have a problem) - yeah, THAT Houston.

Tram

Saturn 5

Johnson Space Center is the NASA government facility only open to employees and those other special people who have official business there.  If you are the general public you go to Space Center Houston right next door, but fear not, you can still access parts of the government facility by taking the tram tour (directly at the opposite end of the foyer when you enter Space Center Houston).

The tour of Johnson Space Center usually includes a stop at the Mission Control.  The mission control area you see on the tour is a mock up that is used in cases of real emergencies so it is operational.  You also get to stop off at Rocket park and see the Saturn 5 and you can tour the astronaut training facility.

The great part about the scout overnight option is that, aside from sleeping there overnight of course, you get access to the facility just as it's closing to the public so you can tour with very few people in there.  You get to sleep under the stars (on the wall that is, but they're still a neat feature) or under one of the Apollo vessels.  And it's a museum that has TONS of neat space things, like a mock up of the ISS, an entire section of Angry Birds games and interactive displays, there's a talk from an astronaut and they will take you on a tour of the Shuttle mock up and the airplane that flew the shuttle on it's last voyage after landing from space,  and there's even astronaut training activities!

Whether you go on the scout overnight option or just attend on a regular operating day this place is well worth your time and the kids will probably love it!