Colin points out where the "normal" tour goes, high above the floor and behind glass.

So how close did they let us get? Well, here is Wenning in the space shuttle.

PJ and Colin on the lower deck. The lockers behind them is where they store all of the science experiments, food, and supplies for the mission.

PJ climbing up to the flight deck, this is a real tight space these guys have to operate in. Not much room to get around in and there are 5-7 people in here when it flys.

Captain Ladd, shuttle mission 2012

Colin tests out the Pilot's chair on the flight deck

While we were there they were "in mission" meaning that a shuttle was in space. If you look in the top left you can see an astronaut in the space station that they were talking to. They were trying to solve a problem they were having on the space station.

Flight director Ladd. This is the original mission control, all the original equipment is still there - nothing changed, like it was yesterday. This is the room they flew all the Apollo missions from and remained in use until 1996. Again the normal tour they give you would be seeing this room from behind glass. We were allowed to wander around the room and explore all the aspects. This is the room actual room you see in all the historic footage, from landing on the moon to the Apollo 13 mission.

Thanks again to everyone at NASA for the tour, a really incredible day. Now lets talk about getting the zero gravity plane going.