NASA

NASA's headquarters building, located a few blocks south of the National Air and Space Museum, is only big enough to house bureaucrats, not boosters. To see real rockets, and more than a few rocket scientists, the Goddard Space Flight Center tour in Beltsville, Md., is a good bet.

In the indoor museum of this NASA field center are the Gemini XII space capsule in which Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and James Lovell orbited the earth in 1966, models of scientific satellites, a moon rock collected by the Apollo 14 crew, and displays illustrating Goddard's various functions-space science, planetary exploration, earth studies and manned space flight. An on-site Educator Resource Center provides resource materials for science educators. Towering outside are unused rocket boosters.

On the day of our visit, George Sonne-born, the project manager for the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer satellite, gave an informative lecture about the satellite's mission to "search for the 'fossil record' of the big bang" by "uncovering clues about stellar evolution." His talk featured video highlights of the satellite's June 1999 launch on a Delta booster and subsequent placement in orbit. Along with guest speakers like Sonneborn, Goddard also offers up stargazing activities at night and films.

Next up was a van tour of the Goddard complex, led by a volunteer, a space enthusiast who works in the private sector. Outside the Building 29 "clean room," where satellites are prepared for launch, elaborate precautions are taken to protect the satellite from fingerprints, which can conduct electricity. We also saw images of an ongoing solar storm being processed from the Solar Helispheric Observatory and got a glimpse of the room that processes control signals to the Hubble Space Telescope. The guide, who handed out posters to children on the tour, said he views his role as one of making the tour "as fun as possible-not like a museum tour guide, breaking it down so that people understand the value of NASA spinoffs."

Another Goddard attraction is the longest-running model rocketry shoot in the world. Ever since 1976, aspiring rocketeers of all ages have come here on the first and third Sunday afternoon of the month to launch their small boosters toward the heavens. The sight of a swift and smooth launch, followed by a clean parachute-aided landing, takes one back to the days when American spacecraft gently splashed down in oceans rather than landing airplane-style on runways.

• NASA hero you've probably never heard about: Bob Harris, the Goddard engineer who in 1973 designed and built small laser diodes for use in light meters on Explorer-class satellites, which were later used to develop such modern wonders as CD players.
  
• Items of interest in the Goddard store: NASA pajamas, freeze-dried space meals, space mission patches, John Glenn posters and model rockets (in case you're there on a rocket launch Sunday and feel the urge to "punch a hole in the sky").
  

Tours for groups over 15 by appointment: (301) 286-8103

Model rocket launches: first and third Sundays, 1 p.m.
Stargazing: second Saturday, October-April, 7-9 p.m.
Staff lectures and films: fourth Sunday, 1-2 p.m.
Goddard Cinema: second Sunday, 1-2 p.m.
(New Carrollton and Greenbelt subway stops)
http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/vc/vc.htm