Safekipedia

Johnson Space Center

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

Mission Control Center celebrating the successful Apollo 11 moon landing with staff monitoring the historic event.

Johnson Space Center

The Johnson Space Center is a very special place where astronauts learn and get ready to travel to space. It is in Houston, Texas, and is named after a former U.S. president, Lyndon B. Johnson. This center is very important for space adventures.

The Johnson Space Center has many buildings spread over a big area. It is where astronauts from the United States and other countries come to train. They learn how to fly spaceships and how to live and work in space. There is a place called the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center where people watch over space missions and make sure everything goes well. Sometimes people just call it “Mission Control.”

A long time ago, the center started in Hampton, Virginia, but it moved to Houston because there was more space to grow. It opened in 1963 and has helped with many space missions since then. The center was renamed to honor President Johnson in 1973 because he supported space exploration.

One cool thing at the Johnson Space Center is a big pool called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Astronauts practice moving around like they are in space here. This helps them learn how to do jobs outside their spaceships. The center also keeps special rocks and soil brought back from the Moon for scientists to study.

Images

Portrait of Robert R. Gilruth, a notable figure in aerospace history.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin train for the Apollo 11 mission in a space center in Houston.
Astronaut training underwater at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston.
Portrait of Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr., a director at the Johnson Space Center, shown in a professional setting.
Portrait of Gerald D. Griffin, Director at the Johnson Space Center.
Portrait of Jesse W. Moore, Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
Portrait of Aaron Cohen, a director at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Carolyn Leach Huntoon, Director at the Johnson Space Center, shown in a professional portrait.
Portrait of George William Samuel Abbey, director at the Johnson Space Center.
Portrait of Roy S. Estess, Acting Director at the Johnson Space Center.
Portrait of Jefferson D. Howell, Jr., Director of the Johnson Space Center from 2002 to 2005.
Official portrait of NASA Astronaut Michael Coats

Related articles

Houston, Texas
Houston
Lyndon B. Johnson
Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center
Hampton, Virginia
Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Johnson Space Center, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.