Left: Boxing Superstar and Celebrity Oscar De La Hoya Right: Rising Star and Philippines Native Manny Pacquiao

Space Center Houston gets ready to rumble! Boxing Superstars Oscar de la Hoya and Manny Pacquiao will announce their December 6 mega-fight at Space Center Houston as part of a six-city press tour on Friday, October 3 at 10am.  Space Center Houston is honored to join other historic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty in New York City and the Sears Tower in Chicago as host of the history making announcement.

The De La Hoya/Pacquiao upcoming bout is being deemed a dream match-up for sports fans and one of the biggest fights in boxing history. The 12-round, 147-pound welterweight bout is set for Saturday, Dec. 6 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nev. and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View. Tickets to the Las Vegas fight on December 6 sold out in mattter of minutes with V.I.P. ringside seats fetching more than $23,000 EACH!

But, you can see them for a LOT less live in person at Space Center Houston included in the cost of admission! Join lucky Houston sports fans and boxing enthusiasts this Friday Oct. 3 at 10 am at Space Center Houston and don’t miss the chance of a lifetime to meet Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao  for this monumental celebrity event!

NANCY BILLE!!!!!

A big heartfelt congratulations goes out to Nancy Bille from the Space Center Houston education department for winning the coveted honor of September Crew Member of the Month!

“Nancy started on February 14, 2007 in the Education Department.  She provides exceptional customer service to our teachers and scout leaders by taking their reservations and providing answers to their questions concerning our teacher workshops and Scout Camp-in’s. Nancy has a great attitude every day of work and is always willing to help others with their projects in the office.” -Allison Benjamin, Education Director

We are extremely proud to have Nancy as part of the Space Center Houston team!

We have been offered quite a few artifacts over the past years. From spare parts for a Saturn V Moon rocket to a cigar butt smoked by a former flight director, it is always interesting to see what shows up at our front door. While each item carries with it an interesting piece of history, it doesn’t always meet the criteria for our permanent collection. However, there are those rare and amazing pieces you just can’t pass up.

Moments after the explosion on Apollo 13, any hope of landing on the Moon was abandoned. Despite the disaster, history would ultimately label Apollo 13 as NASA’s most “successful failure”. Space Center Houston is now honored to host a rare artifact from one of NASA’s finest hours. An artifact that would today be forgotten on the surface on the Moon if things had gone as planned.

(above:)This checklist would have been the guidebook for the Apollo 13 crew while on the Lunar surface.

On a perfect mission, Jim Lovell would have picked up this artifact shortly after landing. It is a collection of pages held together with three metal rings. Although it is marked as the “final copy,” various pages are marked in longhand with last minute notes and reminders. The Apollo 13 Lunar Surface Checklist would have served as the crews guide during the exploration of the lunar surface. Although it conjures up memories of a nearly disastrous mission, it also gives some unique insight to the mission planning and how an alternate reality might have played out. (more…)