The sheer number of photographs documenting the space program is mind-boggling.






This picture should need no introduction - it's of Neil Armstrong. The first man to walk on the Moon.













This picture is of Kenmore native (first ring suburb of Buffalo) Edward Gibson.












This final picture is of Rick Linnehan. We saw him launch at Kennedy Space Center on STS-90 and STS-109.














Here we are in front one of the three remaining Saturn V rockets. The other two are at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida and the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.









This is the outside of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL). The NBL is where astronauts train for EVAs (spacewalks). Inside is a water tank that is 40 feet deep, 102 feet wide, and 202 feet long.
































It's named after Sonny Carter.


































The Sonny Carter Training Facility (SCTF) provides controlled neutral buoyancy operations to simulate the zero-g or weightless condition that is experienced by spacecraft and crew during space flight. It is an essential tool for the design, testing and development of the International Space Station and future NASA programs. For the astronaut, the facility provides important pre-flight training for extravehicular activities (EVA) and with the dynamics of body motion under weightless conditions. Also, be sure to read the rationale behind building the NBL -- a "better, faster, cheaper" solution for providing quality EVA preparations.





















This is a hyperbaric tank on site at the NBL.




There are six to seven divers that stay with an astronaut in the water while he/she is training for an EVA. EVA suits weigh over 200 lbs. In the microgravity of space, that's no problem. On Earth, it means an astronaut needs to be monitored at all times as well as needing help getting out of the water.





While at the NBL, a local news station, KHOU 11, interviewed us and a few other "tweeps" for a news story about the Tweetup.