Joe
Saturn V Double Take

Today we traveled from our hotel in Orlando, Florida, by bus, to the Kennedy Space Center. It took us nearly an hour to get there. While we were at the space center we took a space center tour bus to the Observation Gantry. From the gantry we could see lots of stuff at Kennedy. We saw launch pad 39A rising up through the fog. We could see the VAB and in front of the VAB on the crawlerway we could se a crawler on its way back to the VAB.

The VAB even far away from the Observation Gantry is huge. The U.S. flag pained on the side of the building is gigantic. You could drive our bus on the stripes of the flag. The white stars on the painted flag are six feet across tip to tip.

We went to the Saturn V complex where we saw an actual Saturn V rocket man oh man is that big. The rocket we saw was built to be the launch the Apollo 18 crew to the moon. We got to see it for the sadest reason. The American people canceled the program due to lack of interest. What a sad reason to stop our greatest adventure.

Our next stop was the ISS processing facility. It was hard to imagine that the actual module we were enjoying were on their way to space to be part of the largest space laboratory ever built. In the background of this picture are some thermal radiators that will soon be part of the International Space Station.

We then went to the Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden. This was my second time in the garden and each time I am totally amazed that I am actually looking at space history. Inside the garden are actual rockets from every part of the U.S. space program. We saw and great IMAX film that showed us cool pictures from space. My experiences at the Kennedy Space Center should be shared with everyone. In fact I think that if you have never been there you should go as soon as you can.