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NASA's Glenn Research Center invites the general public to tour its laboratory and testing facilities. Tours are free to all ages and available to U.S. citizens. Reservations are required and can be made up to 30 days in advance, but must be made at least one day in advance of the actual tour.

Tours will occur on the first and third Saturday of each month between April and October, departing hourly between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. from the Visitors Center. The facilities to be toured vary by date as follows:

• April 3: Exercise Countermeasures Laboratory, where scientists and engineers conduct exercise routines, test exercise equipment and examine the effectiveness of exercise and microgravity on astronauts.

• April 17, May 15, June 19, July 24, Aug. 21, Sept. 25 and Oct. 16: Zero Gravity Research Facility, where researchers from around the world come to explore weightlessness, or microgravity, on Earth.

• May 1: Green Lab Research Facility, which is instrumental in developing an alternative fuel source called biofuels for aviation from plants and algae.

• June 5: Abe Silverstein Supersonic Wind Tunnel, the largest and fastest wind tunnel at Glenn. It is specifically designed to test supersonic propulsion components from inlets and nozzles to full-scale jet and rocket engines.

• July 10: Icing Research Tunnel, Glenn's busiest facility, built at the end of World War II, which is instrumental in developing and testing ice protection systems for a variety of military and commercial aircraft.

• Aug. 7: Telescience Support Center, where engineers provide around-the-clock operations support for space experiments on the International Space Station.

• Sept. 11: Ballistics Impact Lab, where researchers perform impact tests, shooting materials such as foam, ice and metal at space shuttle and aircraft structures to see the structures' ability to withstand damage.

• Oct. 2: Altitude Combustion Stand, where engineers develop advanced propulsion concepts and evaluate safer propellants for launch vehicles and spacecraft thrusters.

NASA Glenn Research Center is located at 21000 Brookpark Road in Cleveland, Ohio. Additional information about the tours is available here.