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Published: June 10th 2010
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From Orlando it takes a little over an hour to drive to Kennedy Space Centre. An organised trip was going to cost us $95 each including the coach fare, but doing it by ourselves proved much better. We paid just $40 each for our our tickets and that gave us 2 days of exploration plus entry to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. We didn't do everything in 2 days so quite what we would have managed to see on a day trip from Orlando, we don't know!
Anyway, Space, the final frontier and all that. It all begins with a rocket launch. Guess what - we saw one!!!! The new SpaceX rocket launched while we were there and it was amazing to see it. This rocket may well replace the Space Shuttle in taking astronauts to the International Space Centre.
Our bus tour of the facility took us out past the Shuttle assembly building which is indescribably big! Then we went to the Mercury launch control centre where we saw a few informative videos. The main hallway underneath the enormous Saturn rocket was occupied by chairs and tables for the dinner following the Astronaut Hall of Fame induction due
to take place the next day. While we were looking at all the exhibits (and having photos taken with Snoopy!), they announced that the SpaceX rocket was going to try to launch so everyone went out to the observation deck.
Next we went to NASA's laboratory where all things are tested before being sent to the International Space Station. It was quite interesting but all we could do was stare down through the plexiglass from above. We did get to see some cool models of the Russian MIR space station and walk through a mock-up of the ISS. The space toilets look intriguing!!
We managed to squeeze in a ride on the Shuttle launch simulator which was amazing. Then we saw a 3D IMAX film about the Hubble space telescope narrated by Leonardo De Caprio. That's all we had time for.
We stayed over in Titusville, just 10 miles or so away. That meant we could return the next morning to meet an astronaut. Sam Gemar gave a fantastic presentation which was both entertaining and educational. Afterwards we got to meet him - for about 5 seconds!! We also saw the Space Robot section but "technical difficulties"
meant that we didn't really get the true benefit of the research that has gone into it. Guess it happens to the best of us! The temperature was soaring towards 100F when we walked around the Space Shuttle, paid our respects in the memorial garden and explored the rocket garden.
There was no time to see the other IMAX presentation and the live stage show of "Star Trek" was cancelled because of the Hall of Fame induction taking place in the afternoon. Instead we left the park and went to see the actual Astronaut Hall of Fame. It was very quiet in there but Russ got to see many of his heroes relatively undisturbed. It was great to try to land the Space Shuttle on a simulator and to pose for wacky pictures. Of particular note was the small cinema where 4 projectors aimed their images onto a spherical screen. The sphere then became the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, Jupiter and Mars for a series of visually stunning presentations.
With many miles of road to cover we had to get going. 2 days wasn't enough and we would have felt pretty hard done by had we taken
the day trip from Orlando. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
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