Last summer, my family and I took our vacation along Florida’s Space Coast, and I have to say, this was among the most awesome and interesting vacation spots I’ve visited in a long time. Located just an hour east of Orlando, Cocoa Beach is not only bordered by beautiful beaches, it’s also surrounded by plenty of interesting attractions, such as SeaWorld, Legoland, Disney World, Universal Studios, the Kennedy Space Center, and a lot more.
As a geek who’s particularly interested in anything that is related to space, visiting the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) was almost like a religious pilgrimage for me. From humanity’s first step into space up to everything that is currently happening with space exploration and technologies, I can guarantee that visiting KSC is more than worth your time if you ever visit this area.
Each year, millions of tourists stop by the visitor complex of the Kennedy Space Center to discover the history of the U.S. space program — from its infancy back in 1958 when NASA was created by the United States Congress — up until today where the Space X installations can be admired via a bus tour.
The Rocket Garden
Upon arrival, you are greeted by the magnificent view you see at the top of this post: The gates of the center with the Rocket Garden in the background. After passing through the gates, visitors can stroll around the garden to admire some of the first rockets that were used to launch satellites in space, some of which reach over 100 feet into the sky!
Below, a picture of myself in a reproduction of the one-man Freedom 7 capsule, which brought the first American astronaut (Alan Shepard) into space on May 5, 1961, propelled by the Mercury-Redstone 3 rocket.
The Birth of the U.S. Space Program
After going through the garden, you can enter the pavilion dedicated to the first few years of the space program, especially the Mercury and Gemini missions, where some of the tools that were used by the early astronauts are on display.
There’s also a section dedicated to the Russian Space Program, with a Soyuz module on display, as well as a Vanguard 1 satellite, the oldest man-made satellite (March 17, 1958) that is still in orbit today.
Journey To Mars: Explorers Wanted
After going through the Rocket Garden once again, we entered the exhibition dedicated to Mars, which featured a live presentation of what will happen in the near future at NASA, including the exploration of the red planet and some of the technologies that will be used on future manned missions in space. Below, a space suit prototype and a mock-up of the vehicle that might one day carry astronauts around Mars.
Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour
Even though everything we saw at the visitor complex was absolutely fascinating, the best part of the day for me was the bus tour that brought us around the actual Kennedy Space Center, where a kind NASA veteran showed us the true marvels of the site: The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the launch platforms for past and future space missions.
The Vehicle Assembly Building (pictured above) is the world’s largest single-story building with a total volume of 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,664,883 cubic meters.) The structure is over 525 ft. tall (160 meters) and was originally built for the vertical assembly of the Saturn V rockets from the Apollo Program. In the future, the VAB will be used to prepare NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System (SLS) rockets and various commercial launchers.
Once assembled, rockets are brought to the launching platforms via a crawler-transporter (pictured below.) Unfortunately, estimating the size of that thing with this picture alone is difficult, but for scale, each of the vehicle’s tracks is about as big as a school bus.
The Apollo/Saturn V Center
Once the bus tour was over, we were brought to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, where the original launch room of the Apollo program was on display. After a short presentation, the doors to the main exhibit were opened to reveal a MASSIVE Saturn V rocket, one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in my life, measuring 363 ft (110.6 m) tall with a diameter of 33 ft (10.1 m.)
Saturn V rockets were originally built to bring us to the moon, and later, Skylab, the first American space station, was sent into orbit thanks to them. Alongside the rocket, the van that brought the astronauts to the launch platforms was on display, as well as one of the original Apollo Lunar Modules and Lunar Roving Vehicles that were never used (all pictured below.)
Space Shuttle Atlantis
We finished our day with Kennedy Space Center’s newest attraction, the exhibition featuring the now-retired Space Shuttle Atlantis. Apart from the shuttle, there were also over 60 interactive installations, including a full-scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope, and a fun (but rather mild) shuttle launch simulator.
To conclude, I’d say that if you ever go to or near the Space Coast for your vacations, be sure to visit the Space Center while you’re there. It’s certainly a more than worthwhile experience.
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