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Published: December 8th 2007
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The Rocket Garden.
The only thing we could really see before we got in. Obfuscator writes: We got up pretty early, anticipating heavy traffic to the Kennedy Space Center. As it happened, there really wasn't bad traffic at all, and we got there in an hour, about the same time that we had taken getting from there the night before. Since we got there so fast, we got a great parking spot right up by the front of the lot, just a few paces from the entrance. We had about a half hour to kill before they opened the gates, and we weren't in too much of a hurry to stand in line, since there weren't too many crowds pressing at the gates or anything. At the front of the Visitor's Complex, we could see some big boosters, so we figured we'd walk around to take some pictures. That's when some security dude came running after us to tell us we couldn't do that. Apparently it's just too dangerous to walk around the complex! Oh noes! Automobiles and streets! What if those silly tourists don't look both ways?!
We walked back to the gates, where we waited in line like docile cattle and muttered unkind things about security guards and police under our breath.
Eventually we got in, past the airport style security, and were able to enjoy the Kennedy Space Center at last. The first thing we did was learn all about Robot Scouts from some smarmy film robots. It was a little bit too kid-oriented, but it was still pretty interesting, and amusing.
After that, we hit the rocket garden, where you can check out basically all the major rockets NASA has used to put humans into space, including the massive Saturn rocket. It also had some neat little replica capsules for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, so you could get in and see how cramped they were. Next door there's a pretty cool exhibit for the early space exploration missions. It focused mainly on the Mercury and Gemini missions, with a bit of information about Apollo. In this building, they also had the original control room from (I think) the Gemini missions. That was definitely pretty neat to take a look at, even if it is through glass.
When we got done in that museum, we went and looked at a model of the shuttle orbiter and the boosters we had tried to see earlier. It was surprising
to us, I think, how small the compartments in the shuttle actually are, and how big the cargo bay is. They're not kidding when they talk about it being a high-tech delivery truck. The shuttle can take whole modules for the ISS and carry them up in its bay. That's pretty big.
It was about this time that we were debating what to do next, when we heard them announce that the shuttle launch had been canceled for the day, due to safety considerations, and was delayed until Friday. We went from there into the Mission Status Center, where there was a nice NASA gentleman explaining to people why there was a delay, and what it meant, and lots of other things. We took the time to get in line for the tour of the Kennedy Space Center, and took the bus past the big bald eagle nest, and past the Alligator, past the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and one of the gargantuan crawlers that they use to move the assembled shuttle to the launch pad, and to the Apollo/Saturn V Museum. Inside this museum, they have all the sections of a Saturn V rocket suspended from the
ceiling, as well as a lunar practice rover, and a lander that never made it to the moon, and more memorabilia and information than you can shake a stick at. They also have the actual Apollo (8?) control room behind glass, and a room that could only be the sound stage where the whole thing was faked! Why else would they have a lunar lander that descends from the ceiling on cue, and an astronaut the comes up through the floor, and a flag? Obviously the only plausible explanation for the whole business.
There's also a nice lawn and some bleachers, where you can look out across a big lake or something to where the two shuttle launch pads are. Since this launch had been scratched for the day, the shuttle was still on its pad, and I was able to take some maximum zoom pictures at the whole assembly several miles away. Unfortunately, the way the pad is oriented, the whole towery thing is between us and the shuttle, so you can't see much, but it's still nifty.
The next stop on our tour was the International Space Station assembly facility. When our bus pulled up, we
saw lines that went on seemingly forever, so we decided that since we'd get another day out of the Kennedy Space Center anyway, we could come back for this. We got back to the Visitor's Complex, and popped into the IMAX for a short film all about the ISS, and narrated by Tom Cruise! I could have done without Tom Cruise, but it was actually a pretty rockin' film. I think it made both Onaxthiel and I want to go back in time so we can be kids who still have a shot at being astronauts again. Kids can do anything.
By this time, it was getting pretty late, and we figured that since we would need to spend another day here anyway to try for another launch, we should leave some things for us to see. So we headed out, and back toward Orlando. When we got there, we still had some time to play with, so we stopped in a budget theater, and watched Dragon Wars, which is possibly the single worst movie either of us had seen in a few years. It's the sort of thing you would imagine an 8th grader with really bad ADD
would write. It doesn't really make any sense, and the acting is wooden, at its best. Hilarious, and well worth cheap tickets or cheap DVD. When we got back to the motel and looked at our email, we found that our intel had informed us that the launch was now pushed back to Saturday at the earliest, and that this problem was actually pretty important. So, good for NASA, keeping space-men alive. Now we were just left with awkward options for how to keep hopes for seeing the launch alive.
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Tom Cruise
Did you get to wear the 3-d glasses with the IMAX movie? They make it even cooler. Sorry about the mechanical failure, there haven't been any for the past 3-4 launches so I figured they were done.