Day 2 - December 31, 2009

The pictures are:
1. Part of the Rocket Garden.
2. A “little” alligator. He thinks that the bus is his meals on wheels!
3. One of the space capsules.
4. The Vehicle Assembly Building. The stripes on the flag are each 8’ wide.
5. Part of the cargo for a future space shuttle being assembled.

We awoke to partly cloudy skies and it was going to be 70 so it looked like it was going to be a good day to go to the Kennedy Space Center.

We arrived at Kennedy at 9:00 am just as they were opening and timed it right for a walking tour of the Rocket Garden. These are actual rockets of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Just amazing that the early rockets were made to deliver a bomb and instead these delivered a person(s) into space. It was also incredible to realize how small the capsules were. The first two seat capsule was described as being in a small bath tub with a close friend. One of them orbited the earth for 14 days and they basically could not even stretch their legs out – it was fascinating to see these rockets and capsules.

We then boarded a bus for a two hour tour of the Space Center. As there were no rockets or shuttles being launched, we were able to drive around and see the entire facility. We saw the actual launch sites up close and all of the major buildings that play a part in the launchings of the space program, then and now. We saw the vehicle assembly building, the final stop before the space shuttle rolls out to the launch pad. We could not see inside this enormous building but did see outside the tractor that takes the shuttle to the launch pad. The size of everything is just huge, very huge. This building’s base covers 8 acres and is 525 feet tall. The doors on either side are 456 feet high and it is one of the largest buildings in the world! We also saw the external fuel tank for the shuttle sitting on a boat a few yards away waiting to be moved to the assembly building as a shuttle mission is schedule to go up next week.

The Space Center complex is on 140,000 thousands acres and only a few thousand acres are used. As we traveled from stop to stop it was neat to see all the wildlife there. We were told by our guide that they estimate that there are over 5,000 alligators on the property and we saw at least 15 while we were traveling. And they were close and not behind any fencing of barriers. When the bus driver would see one, he would slow the bus down to a crawl and they were within 10 feet of the bus. All of the buildings had chain link fencing around them that curved at the top to keep the alligators from climbing over the fence!

It was amazing how close we were able to get to view things. We were taken into the building that assembles all of the components that are being sent up to complete the construction of the International Space Station. They allow viewing from the second story inside a glassed in walkway.

We finished the day with two IMAX films, the last being a film showing the construction of the International Space Station. The films were in 3-D and they were great.

This trip is a must see for anyone who visits Florida to see what the United States and others has accomplished. This is a real, up close and personal experience. The people who have accomplished what has been done in space are truly American heroes.

Dinner was at Milliken’s Reef one on the many fish restaurants on the waterfront overlooking Port Canaveral and that was our New Years Eve – a really fun day.