Kennedy Space Center

Today we drove east to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kenney Space Center. Our first stop was the Rocket Garden.  Alistair climbed into one of the capsules with Colin. 

Here is Alistair walking down the Saturn V service bridge from the Apollo 11 mission.

The Rocket Garden is impressive.  The rockets themselves are huge, but the capsules in which the astronauts hurtled into space are tiny.

Here Alistair was trying to get Colin to sit upright, while Colin was trying to explain that this is how the astronauts sat in the capsule.  Next to the Rock Garden was a huge astronaut inspired play area.  Alistair had great fun climbing and sliding.

 

After the Rock Garden, we boarded a bus for a tour to the other areas of the Kennedy Space Center.  Our first stop was the Launch Complex Observation Gantry from which we could see the shuttle laung pads, the huge Vehicle Assembly Building, and the crawlerway in between.

The main stop on the tour bus is the Apollo/Saturn V Center, where you can see a Saturn V rocket.  Charlotte fell asleep during the introductory films, but when we woke her up to have lunch she kept pointing to the rocket and the lunar lander that we were sitting under.  The rocket was huge.

Here is Charlotte and Alistair near the command module.

The Apollo 14 Command Module Kitty Hawk (used in 1971).  I would not want to be falling from space in this little thing.  I think our car is bigger.

It was a very interesting day.  We hope to go back once the shuttle is on display.