Day 14 – Kennedy Space Centre

We all woke to another fabulous breakfast at the International Palm’s resort, before heading back to our rooms to prepare for the journey ahead. Today we were heading to the Kennedy Space Centre, but to get there we had an hour long drive ahead of us. The drive itself was very scenic; with planes landing overhead, alligators and turtles scattered either side of the road, all of which we saw from the wrong side of the road. When we arrived it was like we’d gone back to Space Camp. We were still 3 miles away when we spotted the first of the centre – the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It’s the largest single story building in the world and the 4^th largest building in volume. It wasn’t long afterwards that we spotted dozens of space craft, marking our arrival. We swiftly collected our tickets, passed through security and hopped on board the tour bus.

 

Dana, our guide, took us around to see all of the facilities available for viewing by the public. There were some amazing sights. Launch pad 39 a – this was where the past shuttles and Apollo rockets where launched from, with its huge protruding arm that kept the elements away from the rockets prior to launch. A short distance away was a water tower that used water to soften the shockwaves of the launch. Without it, every single window in the surrounding county would shatter. We drove past launch pad 39b which is being constructed in preparation for the Orion program’s new shuttle design that is nearing completion. Leading up to both of these pads was  an 8 lane wide and 7.00m deep, pebble path. This was what the vehicle known as The Crawler would travel on when transporting the spacecraft from the VAB to the pad/s. We were able to see the crawler up close, and it was nothing short of spectacular. Millions of pounds heavy and capable of carrying even heavier loads, we could see why it needed the 8 lanes. It took 5 hours to travel from the VAB to the pad, with a top speed of 1mph. On top of this it had to travel up a slope just before its destination using its hydraulics system to keep the rocket horizontal.

We were dropped off at the Apollo/Saturn V Centre where we saw a presentation on the history of space travel. Starting from the Soviet Union’s Sputnik, all the way through to Apollo 11 and the first steps of man on the moon. We sat in the very room that launched Apollo 8 around the moon and back, re-living the events that took place. Lunch split the presentation in two, and we made our way into the final part of the show – the Apollo 11 moon landing. With props and replicas to assist the narrator, it was a good finale to the show. Afterwards we caught another bus ride back to the main centre; just in time to catch the Imax showing of Space Station 3D, narrated by Tom Cruise. It did a great job of capturing life in space along with the incredible possibilities that come from the orbiting space station.

 

 

We then moved to the Atlantis space shuttle exhibit which began with a short film, showing how it took them 12 years to design and build the first ever reusable space craft. We moved through to a second viewing area showing the lifecycle of the one of the shuttles; Atlantis. It explained how the shuttle took off, distributed and repaired satellites or docked with the ISS, re-entered through the Earth’s atmosphere and safely landed back on Earth. The screen then lifted and we moved through to  a museum featuring the original Atlantis shuttle and rows of simulators. The simulators were a little like the simulators at Space Camp; where you either docked or landed the shuttle. They were very basic however when compared to the ones at Space Camp.   

Time was up, and we hopped back on the bus and were on our way back to the hotel. Everyone was beginning to feel the hunger building up which led to the question – ‘What’s for dinner?’ After freshening up we faced a decision. Pizza hut, Chinese, or Indian. In the end the group split in all directions, but everyone was satisfied all the same. We all met outside the restaurants and did 30 minutes of shopping along the street, passing through the gift shop and taking a peek at Gator Golf. Everyone was exited to head back down to the pool for another dip, and that’s exactly what we did. We all had a blast frolicking in the water and eventually tired ourselves out. Sauntering back to our rooms we prepare ourselves for the day ahead.

 

By Jono and Logan.