Cape Canaveral: Kennedy Space Center

It may be coincidental that I was born during the Apollo 11 mission (mum watched Armstrong and Aldrin step on the moon from her hospital bed), but I have always had a deep fascination for space exploration and growing up I was reading whatever I could get my hands on about the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.  So visiting Kennedy Space Centre was always going to be a highlight of the trip for me.

There is a lot to see and do and one (long) day was barely enough. First stop for most is the rocket garden just inside the main entrance where a number of boosters used (or not used) in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, have been mounted together with some dummy capsules.

After watching a few 3D films learning more about the Universe and exploring the science behind the first manned mission to Mars we next boarded a bus to go on a tour of the complex.  The tour took in some famous sights including the giant Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the Crawler transporters used to transport the assembled launch vehicles from VAB to pads for launch and various launch pads including the pad currently in use for the Space X program.

The enormous Vehicle Assembly Building

The bus tour ended at the Apollo/Saturn V Center where we spent a few hours.  The Center houses an array of used and unused hardware from the Apollo program including a Saturn V moon rocket, Lunar and Command Service Modules, various Space suits and other smaller items.  There's even a moon rock you can touch.

Part of the original launch control room for the Apollo program

Saturn V first stage - the power of 30 747s in one rocket

Used Apollo 14 Command Module

After heading back to the main complex we visited the Space Shuttle Atlantis, housed in a relatively new exhibit opened about 5 years ago.  In addition to the star attraction, the exhibit included a replica of the Hubble space telescope, a shuttle launch simulator (we went for a ride) and various simulators and mock ups of the shuttle cabin.  There was also an exhibit commemorating the Astronauts killed during the shuttle program.

Not surprisingly, the experience features a lot of US patriotism glorifying the space race and American technology and "The right stuff".  While commemorating astronauts who gave their lives in the pursuit of adventure and science, the exhibits (not surprisingly) don't really cover the failings of NASA that lead to these tragedies.  However for anyone with any sort of knowledge of human history in space, regardless of nationality it would be hard not to feel a bit emotional while seeing some of the exhibits, films and hearing the stories.  Perhaps because the events are such recent history it brings out much more emotion in current generations than dealing with historical events and adventures from hundreds of years ago.