We’ve been driving around the streets of downtown Mountain View for the past 30 minutes, and my parents and I are ready to give up and go home. As we start heading back, my dad finds an empty spot on a residential street, and we’re off running to catch the train to the NASA Ames facilities.

Seventy-five years ago, the Ames laboratories at Moffett Field, were opened. Within 20 years, the research facilities had been integrated into NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Since then, a global capital of astronomical achievement has been within an hour’s drive of Cupertino.

Arriving at Moffett Field, I find that the facilities aren’t anything like what I saw when I visited in fourth grade. Barren land extends all around me, dotted by the occasional building with a large “NASA” sign bolstered to the walls. I notice a large, silver-colored structure looming up ahead. Even the enormous planes parked in front of the structure seem insignificant in comparison.

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