Kennedy Space Centre

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Up early and on the bus to the Kennedy Space Center and what a great day it was.  Our first stop was to view the shuttle Atlantis which is on display.  You can see the Canada Arm extended to the right of the space shuttle.

Tom got to the controls of a shuttle mock up and got to check out what it would be like to move through the space station.

Then it was over to have lunch with an astronaut.  His name is Tom Jones believe it or not.  He has gone into the space four times.  He gave us a very interesting talk about what it was like to live in space, how and what they ate, how they used the bathroom facilities and got exercise to stop the depletion of bone mass due to living with zero gravity.

Then it was onto another bus to take us out to a launch pad.  First stop was the building where they actually build the rockets.  The hand painted flag on the outside is 209' long and 110' wide.  Each star is 6' across.  It was painted on the building in 1976  as part of the bi-centennial in the USA.  This is the tallest one story building in the world!!  The building s 526' tall and covers 6 acres. Check out the tall grey doors on the right.  These massive doors open to allow the rocket to be moved out of the building on the crawler-transporter. The doors are 456' tall and take 45 minutes to open or close.

Once assembled the rocket would be moved to the launch pad on the crawler-transporter.  This machine has 8 tracks and moves at the whopping speed of 1 mile per hour and burns 1 gallon of fuel every 32 feet.  It moves down a 130' wide double  pathway to the launch pad.  

file picture of Saturn V being moved by the crawler

It was not moving today

The launch pad is a massive area. The crawler would move the rocket 3.5 miles to lunch pad 39A. 

Launch Pad 39A

file picture of the Discovery on the crawler positioned at the launch pad...man that would be something to see!!

At the Apollo/Saturn V Center we visited the Firing Room Theater where they actually launched the Apollo. These are all the stations where the men sat ensuring the launch was going as planned.  

 And the real  Apollo 14 Command module, the "Kitty Hawk".  This is what the astronauts returned to earth in, landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Back for a walk through the Rocket Garden before heading to our bus for the return trip to the resort. 

The bus driver decided since it was dinner time we would stop at the Cracker Barrel on the way home for a bite to eat.  Not my favourite place but it filled the void.

We could have spent many more hours at the Kennedy Space Center.  There were more things to see than there was time.  But it was a great day.  Maybe we will take tomorrow off!!!  Until next time - safe travels.