Lily Pad Travels: Kennedy Space Center & Wildlife Refuge

March 19th, 2014

We got up early, well early for us, got ready and made a packed lunch to take with us to Kennedy Space Center. Here is the NASA site. We were only about 15 minutes away so we were soon there.

We went into the Astronaut Encounter and listened to a presentation from a former astronaut, Bob Springer. He was very informative and humorous as he told us about his military career and space flights. We both found it very interesting and our day had started off well.

We decided to do the bus tour next. This took us around the center and past launch pads. The driver, Dave, was very informative. He pointed out the wildlife on the way. The center is also a wildlife preserve and we saw alligators, turtles, wild hogs and an eagle nest with a baby eagle.

The first alligator I've seen in the wild, so excited!!

Spot the turtle, looks more like a duck here

This Bald Eagle's nest is 45 years old and is the oldest one here, the eagles come back every year and the nests are usually inhabited from September through May. There are at least five active bald eagle nests here. The nests can reach more than six feet in diameter and the eagles can produce one or two chicks each year. There is a baby eagle sitting on the nest, can you see him??

Ok, enough wildlife, now for the space stuff!!

On the way to the launch pads we passed by the beach. There is over 30 miles of beach at Kennedy Space Center and it is all private. The beach house on it is used by astronauts and their families before they fly into space.

We drove through Launch Complex 39.

Launch Pad 39A

Launch Pad 39B, we saw alligators in this pond

These launch pads have been in operation since the late 60's but were modified after 1975 for the shuttle launches. This allowed for the space vehicles to be assembled in the Orbiter Processing Facility and the Vehicle Assembly Building. They were then transported to the launch pad using large track crawlers. The first space shuttle to lift off from 39B was the Challenger which broke apart seconds into its flight and caused the death of it's seven astronauts.

Vehicle Assembly Building

The Vehicle Assembly Building is the building where the shuttles and their rockets and fuel tanks are put together. This is the tallest single story building in the world. Each star on the flag is six feet across. the blue portion of the flag is the size of a regulation basketball court. Massive!!

These pictures are of the gravel lanes made for the crawler-transporter to transport the shuttle to the launch pad.

Each crawler lane is 7ft deep and filled with Alabama & Tennessee river rock which is known to have low friction and so reduces the possibilities of sparks. The grass runs between the two legs of the transporter, and the shuttle bus we were on would fit under the belly of it, so it could pass over the shuttle bus!! They haven't let Dave test this though!!

Dave dropped us off at the Apollo/Saturn V Center. We sat through this presentation in a viewing area which overlooked the actual launch room and showed the countdown and lift off of Apollo 8.

We stood under Saturn V, the rocket launcher used in the Apollo missions.

Van used to take astronauts to the launch pad

Newspapers showing man on the moon

Lunar Landing Module

Rock collected from moon by Jim Irwin, Apollo 15

Actual Lunar Landing Capsule Kitty Hawk,Apollo 14

We decided to have our packed lunch here as there was an outside area to sit and we chose the bleachers to use as our picnic table. This is a VIP viewing area when there are rocket launches. The next one was scheduled for March 25th and we talked about coming back from Orlando to watch it but it has now been delayed.

Bryan showing off his orange!!!

The view of the Vehicle Assembly Building

Sue enjoying lunch

The view of Launch Pad 39B

It was a nice spot to take a break and eat our lunch and I was surprised as they weren't many people there.

After lunch, we continued our tour. I didn't take many pictures as I was a little tired of picture taking.

We watched another movie which simulated the Apollo 11 moon landing and then went to the gift shop and looked around. We bought a couple of items and as we were paying the lady was talking to us while she wrapped the items. A "gentleman" behind us gave up waiting and went out to the bus, he was irate I guess because the lady was talking to us but she was wrapping and working while she was talking so wouldn't have been any quicker if she hadn't have spoken. There were other cash registers open as well so those could have been used. Anyway, after we paid for our items we headed out to the bus. An attendant there saw Bryan's stick and proceeded to take us to the line for disabilities, which of course was the front of the line and meant we got on the bus first. We were a little naughty in that we both chuckled quietly when we saw the man who had walked out of the shop getting on the bus after us. I'm sure he wasn't amused. We had Dave again as our driver and this is where we saw the crawler lanes and eagle nest that I mentioned before. From our front row seat we had really good views, he!! he!!

We arrived back at the main complex and continued our tour on foot. We went to the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. Here is a video someone made of a Movie that shows Atlantis. This is one of the shows we saw. At the end you see Atlantis and then the doors open and the exhibit is right there. I thought it was well done.

There are memorials to the astronauts that have died. This one was for Challenger & Columbus. When you see everything these astronauts do to prepare for their time in space I find it sad that the Challenger crew never got to see or experience that before they died. The Columbus crew died on their reentry into the Earth's atmosphere and so they had experienced what it was like to be in space. If I was their family I think I would get some comfort in knowing what they had accomplished and experienced in their final days even though they were unable to share that with family.

Outside is the Astronaut Memorial and Space Mirror Memorial. I couldn't get a picture of the Space Mirror Memorial but did get these of the smaller memorial.

We went into the Imax theatre and watched a 3D movie showing life aboard the International Space Station. It was very interesting. This shows parts of it in a documentary format. Unfortunately we didn't have time to see the movie on the Hubble Telescope as the park was closing. On the way out we did go into one of the other exhibits and I got this picture of the first man on the moon Neil Armstrong's flight suit.