Kennedy Space Center Exploration

I have a bit of a soft spot for Kennedy Space Center:). The first time I went was with Gail back in 1997 and we managed to see an actual shuttle launch from about 15 miles away. It was a night launch and absolutely incredible! The next time I went was just after 911 which was a really poignant experience (blog here). Maddy and I also saw the very final shuttle launch back in 2011 (blog here!). I still fill up when I see the little video and remember just how thrilling it was! And who doesn't love space? So after 6 weeks of rest, now that I am feeling so much better I knew exactly where I wanted to go to *explore* once again!

"We choose to get up early, hit the road and skip Sunday breakfast. We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard"

We took the amazing bus tour to the Apollo/Saturn V Center with tons of moon landing artifacts, simulations and lots and lots of knowledge. Mike and Maddy were engrossed with the NASA tour...

...while I took selfies with cool moon stuff...

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is one of the biggest buildings in the world...

Now that the shuttle program has ended, NASA is building the Space Launch System (SLS), a versatile rocket that will eventually get us to Mars. There are also plans to capture an asteroid. Yes you read that right - a freakin' asteroid!!

Here is the crawler which will transport the new rocket to the famous launch pad 39B where the action happens...

The SLS launch pad under construction....

There were 5 shuttles in all and two were lost (Columbia on reentry and Challenger shortly after launch). One of the three is housed in a special facility at Kennedy Space Center. I couldn't wait to see it!

It turns out that the one on display is the very same one that I saw back in 97 and again in 2011 - the Atlantis. This craft completed 33 out of the 135 shuttle missions. It blew my mind to finally see it so close up - it is just incredible!

There is also a really moving tribute to the lost heroes from the shuttles that didn't survive. Here is the side panel from the Challenger - hard to get your head around the journey that this piece of debris has taken....

As we were admiring the Atlantis, we overheard a guy who sounded like he knew something about space. We could tell he was *somebody* so I pretended to take photos of Mike and Maddy but really was getting a shot of him. You know, like a stalker. A space stalker. A moon walker stalker...

So it turns out that he was Robert D. Cabana, the Director of Kennedy Space Center! He has flown in a shuttle 4 times (twice as Commander) and he added the last two pieces of the ISS. We managed to get a brief chat in although we were all a bit starstruck. What an amazing honor - we were giddy for hours!

We ended the day at the rocket garden...

And paid our respects at the moving Astronaut Memorial...

What an amazing day!