Just after we left the NBL, we found out that Astronaut Ron Garan, who was aboard the International Space Station, had tweeted a shout out to us and wanted to know if we had questions. Click on this picture to enlarge it and read the exchange between Ron and some of the tweeps.







After I tweeted a question that he responded almost immediately to, we got off the bus and headed into Mission Control. All 30 of us were again together for this part of the tour.







First, we were taken into the viewing gallery of the Mission Control Center for STS-135 Atlantis. There is another Mission Control Center that is almost identical to this that is used for the ISS.





While we were in the gallery, a phone went off. We had been explicitly told to turn off our phones (and use no flash photography - hence the "dark" photos). So, when the phone went off, we thought someone was going to be in trouble!




Instead, it was Astronaut Ron Garan (@astro_ron) calling the phone of one of the PAOs (Public Affairs Officers) to talk to us from the ISS!!!!

Everyone ran to gather around the phone, listen to him talk, take pictures of the phone, record the conversation, and maybe get out a question or comment. Ron was very gracious and it was SO COOL to talk to someone while they were orbiting the Earth! You can access the video of this conversation here (it's the last video) or through an iReport for CNN.com that one of the tweeps, @AbsolutSpaceGuy submitted.















The highlight reel continued to roll after our talk with the space station and we were taken into the Apollo Mission Control Center. This is the room you've seen in movies like Apollo 13 and the HBO Series From the Earth to the Moon. It was used throughout Apollo and for the first 15 or so years of the Space Shuttle Program (this was Mission Control during the Challenger disaster).











It is now designated a National Historic Landmark and most visitors to JSC get to sit in the gallery and look at it. We, however, were allowed to walk around, sit down, and touch whatever we wanted! It was absolutely incredible to be in that room where so much history was made. NASA Flight Director Dr. Greg Holt talked to us about the history of the room.




























Of course, most of us could not help but sit there and pretend to "work the problem," "not make things worse by guessin'," and "look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status...[and figure out...] What do we got on the spacecraft that's good?"




































Memorabilia and plaques line the walls of the Apollo Mission Control Center. It was used for Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle program through 1995.