Florida - Kennedy Space Centre

Another footprint in the goal for 50 states. We enjoyed an excellent weekend in Florida. It was a super early start, up at 3 to get the 7am flight. There have been long delays at security checkpoints in the airports due to low staffing so we planned heaps of time. Naturally, the airport was quiet, the line was empty and we had over an hour and half to wait. But, better that than stressing being late. We left the dogs with a dog sitter. They are very lovely people and their little girl was so excited to have the dogs over. They have an old chocolate labrador and they all get on fine. I packed their food, beds, leads and toys and some instructions. I forgot the lady was a vegetarian so when I handed her a container of fresh mince, she had the worst look of horror on her face. I felt quite bad – she said her husband could do the mince at dinner time.

Orlando. We were pretty tired after the early start and neither of us remembered the flight taking off from DC. I only woke just prior to arriving in Orlando about 2 hours later. We hired a car and drove straight to Kennedy Space Centre at Port/Cape Canaveral. I was pretty excited about seeing this place. They recommend 2 days to see it properly so I expected to jam as much as possible in our half day. 

The Rocket Farm

Future of Lunar Modules

Where are we? 

We took a 3 hour tour which took onto the military base where all the rocket launch pads are - there's about 40 of them. We saw the launchpads for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and for many of the various rockets developed such as Saturn and Delta. I was so disappointed that there was a real rocket launch the day before. I had hoped it would be delayed and we might see it but sadly not. That would have been just awesome to witness. They have converted some of the 'blockhouses' (launch rooms next the launch pads) into museums. The old technology was still there and there were loads of photos and info. The equipment reminded me of my early radio tech training days. 

The pics below show the plaque out front of the blockhouse where Alan Shepherd was launched - the first American into space under Project Mercury with a Redstone rocket. The rocket is a life size replica of the space vehicle on the launch pad. 

 

 

Saturn V Rocket

The Saturn V was developed to support the Apollo program for human exploration of the moon and was later used to launch Skylab the first American space station. The Saturn V was launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida with no loss of crew or payload. As of 2016, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful (highest total impulse) rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low earth orbit (LEO) of 140,000 kg, which included the third stage and unburned propellant needed to send the Apollo Command Service Module and Lunar Module to the Moon. (thanks wiki).

Saturn V Rocket burners

The Saturn V rocket was massive. The photo doesn't show this well but it was just huge. Some of the other fascinating things we saw were real lunar modules that have returned to earth. We saw and touched the heat shields - you can see how they burnt on re-entry and the material. We saw the Apollo modules and wondered how they all squeezed in those tight spaces.  There is a rocket farm where all the rockets stand upright to show the various rockets used throughout the space years. The space museums had all kinds of memorabilia - space suits of the many astronauts, moon rock, tributes to the Apollo 13 'successful failure' and Apollo 1 where the 3 astronauts died in the fire on the launchpad during testing.

I was a very excited little engineer to wander through all this history. Space flight technology fascinates me and Deb bravely followed me to all the little places so I could see/do/touch and photo everything. Batman made an appearance and definitely wants to meet with NASA to discuss adding a rocket to the bat inventory. Certainly would give Superman a run for his money.

 

The day was getting late and it was passed the time we planned to leave. But I desperately wanted to see the space shuttle Atlantis. I never expected to ever see this place so I may as well stay a little later and see the shuttle. It was one of those 'ohhh' moments for me. They show you a video in a big theatre about the shuttle development (way back from 1971 !!) and then the next room is a huge amphitheatre type thing. Screens on all walls and roof. It showed the Atlantis, launching, flying and landing. The screen at the front then becomes see-through and behind it is the Atlantis. We both got goose bumps. There it was - the huge piece of most advanced technology ever built. Atlantis flew 33 missions from 1985 - 2001. 

 

The Atlantis museum also housed the Hubble telescope and lots of space shuttle artefacts. There was also a tribute area for the astronauts lost in both the Challenger and Endeavour shuttle disasters. Very sad indeed, I remember when they happened.

After Atlantis, we did a quick buy at the gift shop where I got a souvenir space shuttle, a cup and a jumper. I was very proud of my shuttle cause it has wheels down and the doors open on top so you can see inside - such a geek I know. So it was a late finish at the Space Centre around 5.30pm and we had a long 4 hour drive to Miami.

Read the next post to see our fantastic day in Miami.