Cape
Canaveral is not the nicest of ports we have come into on this amazing trip but
we were we were going to have a very interesting day.
We met for
the tour, out onto the buses and on our way to the Kennedy Space Centre. We couldn’t believe it – no trouble with
customs or queuing up just straight out onto the bus – lovely. It is overcast and before too long it is
pouring rain. On our way we spy an
alligator just cruising along one of the channels. Our guide points out a bald eagle’s
nest. It is easily seen as it is the
size of a king size mattress!!!! They
mate for life and the same nest is used year after year. No wonder, you certainly wouldn’t want to
find enough twigs etc. to build something that size each year. We could also see one of the eagles sitting in
a nearby tree. Julee and Lindsay were on
a different bus and they saw one of the eagles returning to the nest with a
fish (maybe) in its beak.
We arrived
at the centre and the first thing we saw was a monument to JFK. I thought it was really appropriate as he
seemed to be always encouraging space exploration. There was a group of the early unmanned
rockets. We hopped onto a different bus
and they took us to see the various launch pads. The pad had to be 3 miles away in case of any
accidental explosions. We went past the
‘vehicle assembly building’, where all of the space craft have been built. We were quite a distance away so it was hard
to get an idea of the size but the door way was big enough that the Statue of
Liberty would have been able to pass through.
The guide pointed out little black vents – these were 6ft. high. The
each stripe on the American flag were wider than the bus.
They had to
raise the height of the automatic door opening because the doors had opened for
an alligator. The cyclone fence, which
surrounds the centre, also turns outward so that the alligators can only climb
part way before falling backwards.
Our next
stop was to see the Apollo building. Lots of memorabilia, suits, equipment,
even the control centre. It was
interesting to see these pre computer operation centres. We were reminded a number of times that
today’s most basic mobile phone has more memory than was available for these
missions. A moon buggy replica was there
that you could sit in for photos. There
was another one which was a copy of the one on the moon. It had to have special wheels, not rubber
tyres, to move about. They hope that all
they will need to do when they go back to the moon, is take a new battery and
the original moon buggy will be off and running again.
The Atlantis
display has only been open since May and was great. You go into one theatre and watch a video
about the concept, planning and building.
The next room you go into shows the take-off until finally the screens
are taken back and what at first looks like a painting is the actual Atlantis
shuttle. It is really well done, lots of
drama and special effects but it certainly has impact. There were simulators,
control seats, all sorts of incredible displays.
And so it
was time to get back onto the bus, running through the puddles, in the pouring
rain, back to the bus to get a nice warming cup of tea.
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