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Friday, December 21st, 2012: Kennedy Space Center
Bob: After a nice breakfast at the motel, we zipped over to the Kennedy Space Center and signed Martin up for a 1-day pass. We could enter for free since we still had a few days left on the yearly pass we had purchased during our visit to the Kennedy Space Center the previous December. Our first order of business was to see the "Hubble Space Telescope" IMAX movie again, and it was just as impressive as we remembered it being. That movie certainly gives you an idea how difficult it is to work in space, as well as showing off some of the truly spectacular images that have been taken by the Space Telescope. |
Monika: We got up early had a nice breakfast and headed east to the Kennedy Space Center. Bob and I had been there last year and enjoyed it so much that we upgraded to a year pass so we could come back this year. We easily found a parking spot, bought Martin an entrance ticket and headed into the park. We decided to start out with the IMAX movie on the Hubble Space Telescope since there were no lines yet.This rather impressive 3D movie rist shows yout the repairs that had to be done to the telescope in space. First the astronauts had to reel it into the cargo area of the space shuttle, than the repairs were made, and it was released again. Everything went flawlessly but there were some scary moments. The second part of the movie were real pictures from the Hubble put together as a flight into space. Ah, Carl Sagan would have loved it! |
Bob: After the Hubble movie, we took the basic bus tour out to the Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Pad 39 complex. The VAB is the absolutely huge building where the space shuttles were assembled with their solid rocket boosters before being trundled out to the launch pad. The first tour stop was an old launch gantry, I think, which we could climb up on and get some nice views of the VAB on one side and the Launch Pad 39 complex on the other. |
Monika: After this we took the basic bus trip, which takes you through several areas of the space center with narration and several stops. We drove past the VAB where the shuttles used to be assembled before being taken to the launch pad, and then stopped at an overlook for Launch Pad 39 where that shuttle used to be launched. The platform also gave you a nice view over the whole Kennedy Space Center Complex. |
Bob: The second stop on the tour was one of the large old buildings that had been re-purposed as a museum. The entryway to the museum included a well-made introductory overview video on the race to the moon, particularly valuable for those who were not old enough to have lived through those events. (We remembered watching it unfold on a small black-and-white TV!) The nice thing about the building itself was that it was large enough to have a full, authentic Saturn-V moon rocket hanging from the ceiling, in the horizontal position of course!! Still the thing was absolutely huge, almost beyond human scale, and seeing it brought back the heady days of the trips to the moon, arguably NASA's finest hour. |
Monika: The next stop was a huge building dedicated to the Apollo missions. A huge Saturn rocket was actually displayed and patches of the all the different Apollo missions. |
Bob: The spidery-looking Lunar Excursion Module or LEM was included in the static displays, and in the back studio in back we saw an absolutely true, hair-raising video of the first moon landing itself. Personally, I had never realized how much was going wrong with the computer system during that landing and how close it actually came to disaster. But Neil Armstrong took over manual control at the last minute and avoided crash landing into a field of boulders, finally landing with only seconds of rocket fuel remaining! Wow! You have to realize that there is no air on the moon so there was no chance of gliding in for an emergency landing. Running out of rocket fuel in that situation would have been tantamount to "fall down, go boom!". Phew! |
Monika: A video actually took you through the final steps of the first lunar landing. I had not been aware how close it was to being a disaster. But Neil Armstrong took the controls himself and landed the Eagle. His words "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." is still spine tingling to me. |
Bob: Returning to the main complex, we had lunch and then did the Space Adventure, a simulator ride based on a space shuttle launch. It was pretty realistic but not nearly as strenuous as a real shuttle launch, involving 7 Gs or so, would be, (thank goodness!). Still, it was a lot of fun. We ended up the day watching the second IMAX movie about the International Space Station, which was also good, and visiting the gift shop for some mementoes before driving back down to celebrate Martin's birthday with Tanya, Ericka, and Ondina. |
Monika: Our next adventure was a simulated shuttle launch. It was fun, but not qiuite as scary as the different warnings made it sound. After that we watched another IMAX 3D movie on the space station. It too was well made, and gave you real insight into life on the space station. An obligatory visit to the gift shop rounded out our visit and soon we were back on the road to Miami to see Tanya, her mother, and sister. |
Bob: Tanya had made a coffee cake decorated with a candle that Martin dutifully blew out, and we all sang "Happy Birthday". It was good to be back with our family once again and have such a pleasant way to end up our trip! |
Monika:
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