Out of this world experience

Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center, FL

Yesterday (Sunday) was a lovely day, doing some chores, some reading and later in the day, I headed over to join Mary Jo and Ed at Tina and Johnny’s for a lovely casual afternoon of exotic beverages and munchies (some were our leftover edamame and fried pickles from the night before). Later Tina treated us to a lovely barbecued dinner on the patio. I could get used to the lifestyle. Of course we rehashed every detail of our parade adventure the night before. While we were all together, we Facetimed with Phil and Gill to catch-up on their news. And since I don’t have a TV I was a hanger on to watch the Academy Awards, which I wanted to do since I’ve seen most of the movies that were up for Best Picture. I’m personally very glad that Spotlight won.

Today I didn’t get a really good jump on the day given my previous late night. In fact, I didn’t get rolling until 10:00am. But it was the kind of day that didn’t really matter because I decided to head to the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) on the Atlantic Coast. It was a great day adding to my experience at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, TX.

I started with an add-on bus tour which took us out to circle the huge Vehicle Assembly Building, the launch pads where the Apollo and Shuttle launches were all done, Launch Pad 39a and 39b. We had an excellent guide who was knowledgable, had a great resonating voice and a fantastic sense of humour. The Vehicle Assembly Building is huge and at the time it was built in 1966 it was the largest building in the world. To give you context, the US Flag on the side of the VAB is 21 stories high. It would hold 3 and a half Empire State Buildings inside. We saw the path that the “creeper” took to move the 18 million pound shuttle from the Vehicle Assembly Building out to the launch site. As you can see from the picture, the creeper has tracks like a tractor, each of the sections of the track, weighing a tonne.

The next generation of deep space explorers and the shuttles to take supplies and American astronauts to the International Space Station is under development by commercial entities. The only way NASA can currently get astronauts to the ISS is by hitching a ride from the Russians and as our guide pointed out, they’ve learned the meaning of capitalism because the cost to the US government to send up one astronaut is $70-80 million. So they are anxious to get the new program up and running.

One of the things that isn’t immediately apparent is that in addition to being NASA’s space program site, the KSC is also designated as a nature preserve. It’s an ideal spot because for security reasons, they don’t allow motorized boats around the barrier islands and there is a limited amount of development on the land. We saw all sorts of exotic birds, a couple of alligators and a turtle, while not really looking for them.

While we were at one of the photo op sites, someone asked the guide why Mars was so important to explore. Our guide did a great job of explaining both the motivation behind the moon landing and their continuing interest in Mars. I’ll try to paraphrase what he said much more eloquently and factually, I’m sure. He started by explaining that the Apollo program and the moon landing, was part of the cold war propaganda. The American population was nervous about Russia having a satellite circling the earth and their advances in the space race. Kennedy pushed NASA to leapfrog Russia by being the first to put a man on the moon, after their earlier attempts to keep up with Russia failed. The reason for Mars exploration is to try and figure out why Mars’ magnetic field has been compromised and it is no longer functioning in keep in the atmosphere around the planet as it once did. And there is evidence of a huge canyon on Mars that scientists theorize might have been caused by an asteroid hitting Mars and believe this might have caused the breaking down of Mars magnetic field. So, the study of Mars and other experiments they are conducting to try and move the trajectory of an asteroid are areas of research for the purpose of self-preservation.

After the bus tour I headed over to what is clearly the most popular exhibit, the Atlantis Shuttle. It’s in an impressive, huge building with displays along the way as we wound our way up a ramp to take us to the top of the building. Two audio visual presentations, each in their own room, gave background on the Apollo and Shuttle programs, and are very well done. Both were leading up to the climatic moment when the big screen ahead of the audience in the second presentation room is lifted and you can move right into the upper level where Atlantis is suspended from the ceiling in all her glory. The presentation and lighting, etc. was very well done.

The shuttle cargo bay is open and as you can see from the pictures, the Canadian logo is displayed on two very visible points on the shuttle. There are displays and information all around the upper level and then you continue down a ramp to the lower level where the Atlantis Experience is located. They have set up a shuttle take-off simulator that visitors can experience what it might be like to be an astronaut during take off. The astronauts, from the beginning of the shuttle program in particular, said this simulator is more real than anything they trained on. It was certainly a blast! It was like a Universal or Disney ride, where about 50 people are let into the room in rows of 6 people, strapped in to high back seats and they experience the movement, sound and feel of the take-off. The noise, shaking and force pushing you back against the seat were pretty real feeling for sure, and then once the fuel rockets are ejected the sensation is very smooth and calm.

It was a great day, and I was glad to have had the opportunity to bookend KSC with JSC.