Started off to be a chilly morning 9.5C (49F), but is sunny.
By 9:00, we were off to the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex. It is a sunny 9C (48F). By the time we arrived at 9:28, it has warmed up to 16C (61F). Paid another $10.00 to park!
We headed straight over to the KSC Bus tour loading area, as the tours start at 10:00.
The first point of interest on the tour was the Massive Vehicle Assembly Building, which has 456 ft tall garage doors that take 45 minutes to open. It has a HUGE American flag painted on the side.
The VAB is 526 feet (160.3 m) tall, 716 feet (218.2 m) long and 518 feet (157.9 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (3 ha), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,665,000 m
3) of space.
Located on Florida's Atlantic coast, the building was constructed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms with a foundation consisting of 30,000 cubic yards of concrete and 4,225 steel rods driven 160 feet into limestone bedrock.
The American flag painted on the building was the largest in the world when added in 1976. It is 209 feet (63.7 m) high, and 110 feet (33.5 m) wide. Each of the stars on the flag is 6 feet (1.83 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each of the stripes is 9 feet (2.74 m) wide, the width of a standard road lane.
We were let off the bus at the Apollo/Saturn V Centre where we could tour at our leisure.
The size of the Saturn Rocket was amazing!
The displays here are awesome!
We even saw a sample of lunar basalt, estimated to be 3.7
BILLION years old.
The Apollo 14 capsule was on display.
Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the US Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon.
They launched on their nine-day mission on January 31, 1971 at 4:04:02 pm local time after a 40 minute, 2 second delay due to launch site weather restrictions, the first such delay in the Apollo program. Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5. During the two lunar EVAs, 42 kilograms (93 lb) of Moon rocks were collected and several surface experiments, including seismic studies, were performed. Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought from Earth. Shepard and Mitchell spent about 33 hours on the Moon, with about 9½ hours on EVA.
Shepard, Roosa, and Mitchell landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9.
Launch Pad 39 is 3 miles away, that little dot between the trees!
At 12:00, we got
back on a bus for the return trip to the Visitor Centre. There was so much to
see, it was mind-boggling!
Before having lunch, we HAD to take the Shuttle Launch
Experience, minding the warnings! (1053) It was awesome! One experiences the
sights, sounds, feelings and excitement of a vertical launch in mankind’s most
complex vehicle.
You enter the ride, taking a seat and strapping yourself in. (The
rather limited backstory for the ride is that you’re flying in a special
passenger module in the shuttle’s cargo bay. There’s no explanation for why
you’re going to space or when you’ll come back; this is, after all, only the
Shuttle
Launch Experience.) Once strapped in, the module rotates into a
vertical position—hence the requirement before entering the ride to put items in
lockers before entering—and a condensed version of a launch follows. As a video
narrated by Astronaut Charles Bolden plays, riders experience the sensations of acceleration and
vibration as the shuttle lifts off and climbs towards orbit. (The ride tries to
interject a bit of additional drama into the experience with a minor emergency
during ascent, but that does little to heighten the experience since there’s
nothing riders can do about it and the problem is resolved within moments.) Once
the shuttle reaches orbit, the cabin rotates back to its original position,
which can give you a momentary, illusory sensation of weightlessness. And, like
any good theme park ride, you exit by passing through a gift shop.
This is a 9-ton granite constellation sphere floating
on water. Amazing!
Do you know where this is – taken from space?
It is London,
England.
After lunch, we were just in time for the showing of IMAX
Hubble 3D, Eye on the Universe at 1:30,
which was narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. After spending ½ hour visiting other
exhibits, we watched the other IMAX film, Space Station 3D. This one was
narrated by Tom Cruise. They were both
excellent and so realistic in 3D (wearing 3D glasses).
Unfortunately, the Astronaut Memorial was closed for
renovations.
The Space Mirror Memorial, designated as a national memorial by Congress and President George Bush, was dedicated in 1991. The Astronaut Memorial honors the 24 U.S. astronauts who gave their lives for space exploration. The names of the fallen astronauts from the Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Apollo 1, as well as the astronauts from training and commercial airplane accidents are emblazoned on the monument’s 42-1/2-foot-high-by-50-foot-wide black granite surface as if to be projected into the heavens.
On our way back to the entrance, we toured the Rocket
Garden, which featured
another full-size Saturn rocket.
Finally, after a long day, we exited the Centre at 4:30. What a fabulous day!
