Mississippi welcomes truckers to NASA tour

Southern Hospitality - credit Lindsay Godfree

When we finally discovered the rest area welcome center on I-10, on our way east, it was too late in the day to take the NASA Space Center tour that starts at Hancock County Welcome Center.  But if we had known we could park the truck there and see something so cool, we would have found a way there sooner. It is the only state I have seen that offers a tour shuttle at the visitor center for all highway travelers to enjoy.

On the grounds you can see various NASA exhibits, enjoy picnic areas and get information in the beautifully decorated welcome center. At this rest area is a 30-foot-tall lunar lander used as a trainer by Apollo astronauts. Its base features the autograph and bootprints of Fred Haise, an Apollo 13 astronaut and Mississippi native. There should be more of this type of rest area with lots of parking for those who live their life on the road. There are actually 12 welcome centers in Mississippi; they report that all of them offer truck parking.

Launch Pad closes at 2 - credit Lindsay Godfree

The Hancock County Welcome Center is the largest of the twelve centers along Mississippi’s interstate system. Located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Highway 607 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Welcome Center encompasses 7,000 square feet on 60 acres of land. Along with the picnic grounds and rest area facilities it has the unique feature of an armillary sphere and NASA Launch Pad.

Tours of the StenniSphere depart from the Launch Pad at the Hancock County Welcome Center west of Bay St. Louis, Miss., on I-10 at Exit 2, just 48 miles west of Biloxi and 45 miles east of New Orleans. StenniSphere conducts tours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, except major holidays; with the last tour leaving the Launch Pad at 2 p.m. (Visitors 18 and older must present a valid identification with photograph, such as a driver’s license or passport.)

Apollo lunar lander trainer - credit Lindsay Godfree

Travelers who board shuttles listen to a 25-minute narrated tour, beginning at the Launch Pad station at the Hancock County Welcome Center then proceed to the site of America’s largest rocket engine test complex for an up-close view of the massive test stands and perhaps the shake, rattle and roar of a rocket engine as it is being tested.

Outdoor Exhibits Include:
• Space shuttle main engine
• Learjet Model 28 airplane equipped with remote sensors that gather detailed images of Earth
• Full-scale Nomad buoy, like those used to measure weather and ocean conditions
• Scale model of the Saturn V rocket that took America’s astronauts to the moon
• F-1 engine that powered the first stage of the Saturn V rocket
• Solid Rocket Booster that helps power the space shuttle into orbit
• A full-size Jupiter-C rocket, the kind that put the first U.S. satellite into orbit

Southern antebellum interiors - credit Lindsay Godfree

Another interesting place to stop if traveling in Mississippi is the Delma Furniss Hospitality Station located in the Mississippi River Delta Region at the junction of Highways 49 and 61 near Lula, Mississippi. The area is rich with Native American artifacts and the Welcome Center sits on a very historically significant site. Visitors can enjoy a film about its history and the archeology dig in which over 10,000 artifacts were found dating back several thousand years and include two different time periods. Shards, arrowheads and other artifacts are displayed along with related information.

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