NASA Johnson rocket park
— the engines that left the planet, set down on grass.
Not only on a wall.
NASA Johnson rocket park, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“An open lawn at NASA Johnson Space Center, just south of Houston, with three rockets on display. A Mercury-Redstone replica stands upright near the entrance. A Little Joe II, used to test the Apollo launch escape system, sits beside it. The Saturn V, one of three flight-built vehicles still in existence, rests on its side inside a long climate-controlled building at the back of the park. — from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Rocket Park sits on the grounds of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, about twenty-five miles south-east of downtown Houston. It is reached through Space Center Houston, the official visitor centre that runs the tram tour onto the federal campus. The park gathers three vehicles in one open lawn: a Mercury-Redstone replica, a Little Joe II that was used to test the Apollo launch escape system, and the Saturn V SA-514, housed in its own long climate-controlled building. The Saturn V was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1980.
The Saturn V is the largest object in the park by a wide margin: three hundred and sixty-three feet long, six and a half million pounds at full fuel load, the most powerful rocket ever flown successfully. The vehicle at Johnson is one of only three flight-built Saturn Vs that survive, alongside those at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It is built from the first stage of SA-514, the second stage of SA-515, and the third stage of SA-513.
Rocket Park is included with admission to Space Center Houston, which sets the gate at around thirty dollars for adults and runs from ten in the morning to five in the afternoon, with longer hours in summer. The park is reached by the NASA Tram Tour, which leaves from inside Space Center Houston and stops at Rocket Park along with Mission Control and the astronaut training facility. The Saturn V building is climate-controlled and accessible. Most visitors give it an hour.
