Traveling to Florida

Well, I recently came back from a week long vacation to Florida. While I was there, I spent time in Orlando and Cape Canaveral. It was great! One of the highlights was a special tour of the Kennedy Space Center that a friend gave me.

We started off at the Vehicle Assembly Building - which is a huge building that they use to put the space shuttle boosters, external tank, and the space shuttle itself all together. When we walked in the building, STS-96 (the mission that is currently in space, as of today) was in the building, getting repairs done. The external tank had been hit with hail - and the hail had dented the foam that surrounds the tank. Dents in the foam are dangerous because there is a possibility that water could get caught in the dent. Then when the tank gets very cold, when it is filled with fuel, the water could freeze. During takeoff, the ice could fall off and damage the shuttle (particularly the windows)!

Anyway, back to the tour... we were able to go up on the scaffolding that surrounded the space shuttle, so I was close enough to touch it! At one point, I was actually looking DOWN on the tip of the external tank. Plus, I could very easily see the dents that the hail made. It was utterly amazing. After being close enough to the shuttle to touch it (heck, I could have put my NOSE on it!), we walked around on the surface of the mobile launch platform. That was a great view, as well.

I had originally scheduled my vacation so I could see the shuttle launch, but I have to say that seeing the shuttle up that close was almost as great! So, I learned that even if things don't go as I planned -- it doesn't mean that things won't go well. :-)