Today was a time for a total change of scene, away from the theme parks, we headed to the Space Coast. The drive over took about 75 minutes and included our first tolls – $2.50, $1 & $1.25.
I came to Kennedy Space Center on my first visit to Florida. We went to watch the first shuttle landing in the dark. Unfortunately it got postponed due to weather and eventually landed at Edwards Airforce Base instead of at Kennedy. When we came with the kids in 1999, Michael and I headed over to Cocoa Beach in the middle of the night to see a shuttle launch. It was the first mission with a female pilot and all female crew. Hillary Clinton was at the launch center for it and it was live on TV. We heard the countdown on the car radio and parked everyone nearby was also counting down – 3 – 2 – 1! And nothing happened! The launch had been aborted with 4 seconds to go due to an abnormal gas reading. I was obviously destined never to see the space shuttle in action.
This was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit again. There is a ‘new’ exhibition about Atlantis which I wanted to see and also hoped Bethany would learn something.
After parking and getting our tickets we headed straight to the Atlantis building.
Nothing had prepared me for the first view of a real space shuttle. On TV they always seemed to be white and shiny. In reality it was a mucky grey colour in lots of places and definitely matt.
The first question a lot of people asked was “is this the real space shuttle?” to which the answer was a definite “yes”.
It was definitely smaller than Bethany expected but she still thought it was amazing.
There were lots of exhibits about all the different parts and uses for the shuttle and even a cockpit mock up so Bethany could sit in the pilots seat.
Two interesting facts I learned.
The other big pull is the take off simulator. On the way to the simulator we passed a mock up on the international space centre, designed for kids to crawl through.
There was no queue at all so after placing all our bags in a locker we went up to launch control to experience a take off for ourselves.
It was quite rough but an interesting experience.
Some more photos of other parts of the exhibition.
We also walked though the memorial to the 14 astronauts who died in the two shuttle accidents. It was very moving.
After Atlantis, the next ‘must-do’ was the bus tour to the Apollo / Saturn V exhibit.
The tours set off throughout the day and take about 45 minutes to get to the Saturn V building.
We went out to see where the launch pads were and passed the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). I remember being amazed by the scale of the building last time. Since the space shuttle stopped flying, the building has been repurposed so it can be used by other rocket launch systems and is currently being refitted so it can be used by private space companies.
We also saw the crawler ‘truck’ which used to take the shuttles from the VAB to the launch pad. The crawler lane was as wide as an 8 lane highway!
At the Apollo / Saturn V building we had an introduction and then moved on to the launch center. They had actually moved the old launch desks piece by piece and rebuilt them so it looked exactly the same as during the Apollo missions.
They then took us through a launch so we could see it from the engineers side. Next we were let loose in the huge hanger next door which housed a Saturn V rocket. It was massive!
We grabbed lunch here at the Moon Rock Cafe and sat outside with a view of the launch pads and VAB.
Bethany had some green screen photos taken so it looked like she was on the moon, in the space shuttle or floating in space.
We got the bus back to the main complex and drove passed the VAB again and the largest eagle’s nest in the USA. Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the bus to photograph the nest.
At the main complex we wandered through the Mission to Mars hall and then outside to the Astronauts Mirror Memorial.
We then walked via the Rocket Garden back to the car and headed to Cocoa Beach.
Our first stop was Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, where Bethany managed to find a new swimsuit and a rashie top, to wear while doing stand up paddling in the summer.
We then had to go to the beach so she could try out the new swimsuit.
Michael and I were happy paddling but unfortunately we turned our backs to the ocean to take a selfie and a bigger than expected wave crashed into us, soaking our shorts.
After Bethany had had her swim we had a quick trip back to Ron Jon’s and picked up a couple of t-shirts, followed by a pit stop at Starbucks and then made our way home.
We didn’t spot anywhere to eat on the way home so we ended up back at Applebees. We did however almost see a stunning sunset.
We came home a slightly different way and the tolls were $1.50 more expensive.
Once again we got a table without waiting and had a very tasty dinner.
Crouch Family On Tour 