Kennedy Space Center

While I was visiting my sister in Gainesville last month, I convinced her to drive to Titusville and visit Kennedy Space Center. She thought it was a 2 hour drive, but then realized it was 3 hours, and almost backed out. We got a late start, and didn't get to Kennedy until noon, and of course it's wicked hot.


Welcome to Titusville. After Titusville, you drive across the Causeway to Cape Canaveral, home of Kennedy Space Center as well as a big wildlife preserve.



First look at KSC from the Causeway.



KSC Entrance. Behold my Holy Grail. We took the free bus tour first (next time, I'm planning to pay extra for at least one of the bonus tours. I want to get as close as I can to 39A and B.) There were three possible stops along the way - the observation tower for Launch Pads 39A and 39B, the Saturn/Gemini complex, and the International Space Station complex. I decided to skip the ISS section, figuring it'll be there for a while and we were short on time, and there are tentative plans to go back for one of the last shuttle launches this fall.

The Vehicle Assembly Building.



First stop was the observation gantry for Launch Pads 39A and 39B. View of Launch Pad 39 (A or B) from the observation tower's 4th floor. There was a good breeze on the catwalk, too. The road is the path that the crawler takes when it hauls the Shuttle to the launch pad.

Resident tortoise seen on the bus tour.



Next stop is the Apollo/Saturn V Center. First there's a stage presentation, then you get to see the control room and some exhibits. Out in the main room there's an actual Saturn rocket hanging from the ceiling. It's massive! This is the stage backdrop for one of the presentations. They lower a replica of the lunar lander down from the ceiling, and it looks pretty cool.



I touched a moon rock!! It's in a little block, you can stick your hand in to touch it, but there's not enough space to steal it or anything.


Astronaut Snoopy. One of the Apollo capsules was named Snoopy.

Control room from the Apollo missions.

After the bus tour, we went back to the main complex. We'd just missed the Hubble IMAX movie (Hubble images in IMAX and 3D! My brain would have melted. I've got plans for a mega-sized wall mural of a Hubble image someday. I drool over the Carina Nebula mural. Color would be awe-inspiring, but black & white would be pretty striking too.) So, we did some shopping and then went to the other IMAX movie, called Magnificent Desolation, narrated by Tom Hanks.

Last, we went outside to the Rocket Garden and the outdoor exhibits.



My sister's Vanna White impression.


Rocket Garden. Sister thinks "artistic" pictures are just ones you take at an angle.

The gantry the astronauts walked up to the capsules in.


The last thing I did before we left was visit the Astronaut Memorial. This is a lousy picture (blame the heat, I was tuckered out and the sun was bright at this spot). It's a big black wall with a mirror finish on it that reflects the sky, and it looks like the names are floating in the clouds. The three names in the lower center block are Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White. The other squares have names of other astronauts who've died over the years.




Souvenir pennies. I love the squash-a-penny souvenirs. Fairly cheap, don't take a lot of space. No practical use, but hey. The prices on these varied. I went with the 50cent models, but there was a nice one - Shuttle, I think - that I was going to get until I noticed that it was a $1 machine.


Leaving on the Causeway. We'd been there six solid hours, and were tired and hungry for some real food. Six hours on my feet is why I wore my New Balance shoes, no matter how unstylish my sister thought they were. Six hours of walking in a pair of her sandals that were too big for me would have ruined my day. No thanks.



Grissom Avenue in Titusville. (Proof my sister wasn't paying attention - she thought I was a CSI fan when I took the pic)