Days 6-8: ROCKET BLAST!!

Days 6/7/8 – To Orlando Florida and NASA

Having been educated about tipping by Robyn:  when to tip, when not to tip, how much to tip, how to tip, we ventured out on our own for a three day trip to NASA Florida.

Orlando is the closest city to NASA and so it was to Orlando that we went, staying there two nights and going to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre for a day trip.

Until we were told by our taxi driver, we had no idea of the growth of Orlando.  He told us that when he moved there twenty years ago, it was a town of 900 people.  Now it has a population of 2.5 million – all thanks to the building of Disneyland Florida. He said that they are building freeways everywhere – trying to keep up with the population zoom.

We chose our hotel wisely – very much a budget one but surprisingly clean and comfortable.  It happened to be right in the middle of the ‘Disneyland’ patch – Sea World, Disneyland – several of them, Legoland, Wet ‘n’ Wild, Volcano Bay….. the list seems endless.

To get to Orlando, we rode the Greyhound for the first time.  It was OK but certainly not a luxury trip.  We were able to get tickets on the Amtrak train for the return trip and we found that much more roomy and comfortable.

We chose our NASA day to coincide with a planned rocket launch from Cape Canavarel.  Damien graciously enlightened us about the impending event, even though he had experienced a huge disappointment last month when he and his mate made the trip down there for a launch that was abandoned with just seconds before lift-off. This was to be the launch of an unmanned rocket.  Apparently, these days, to see a manned (or womaned) rocket take-off, you have to go to Kazakhstan!!!

We took a guided tour for the day.  It is normally about an hour’s drive out to NASA but on Tuesday it took double that time, with all the cars going out to see the launch.  We arrived in the spot to witness the take-off at T-2 (ie. just two minutes before take-off!!).  It was a beautiful sunny day with fluffy white clouds. The rocket (Atlas V) did in fact lift off and obligingly went right between the clouds into the bright blue sky.  The firey emissions followed it up into the heavens. Then it seemed no time at all before it veered off to the left, with a trail of steam-like debris left twirling behind, the rocket itself now just a speck high in the sky.

We learned that this mission had several purposes. One is to take supplies to the International Space Station and to bring back rubbish that has accumulated at the station since the last clear-out.  It will also undertake several experiments: testing out various fuel sources to see the fire and smoke that emits from them while in space, testing a greenhouse designed to grow food for those who are living in space, and even an experiment that tests decrease in the side effects of chemotherapy drugs by incorporating antibodies that target only the diseased cells. The mission will also carry satellites into space, in this case thirty-eight tiny satellites the size of shoe boxes. I have just read that the purpose of these is to give schools, universities and non-profit organizations the opportunity to have transport for a satellite for experiments.

We had learned that a trip to NASA well and truly is a full day, with many different buildings, exhibits and experiences.  First was an internal bus ride out to the launch pad area and around the massive building Vehicle Assembly Building where spacecraft are built. 

At 160 m tall, it is the highest one-storey building in the world.  To gain an idea of its size, the following photograph has a small grey rectangle at about the 5 o’clock position.  They are a set of double doors for people and they are 4 metres high!!

Then it was to the huge building where Saturn V is now housed.  This is the rocket that was used in all the Apollo missions, from the disastrous Apollo 1 (1967) when three astronauts were killed, right up to the final moon mission, Apollo 17 in 1972.  In the building were the actual equipment, vehicles, space suits etc that astronauts used for training for the missions.  They included the moon buggy with its mesh wheels, the cockpit and the space suits worn by the astronauts. We touched a moon rock and saw the actual control room for the Apollo missions.

The next huge building that we went to housed ‘Atlantis’, the space shuttle that has been retired since 2011.  With this space-craft designed to blast off into space like a rocket and return to Earth like an aeroplane, it was the actual vehicle that is now suspended in its final home. 

  

The purpose of Atlantis was to carry astronauts back and forth between the International Space Station.  In fact, the International Space Station was constructed by astronauts taking pieces up one at a time and assembling it on site – that is in space!!

Made of more than 2.5 million parts, Atlantis is an amazing sight!  It was used for thirty-three of the space shuttle missions between 1985 and 2011. The person who described it to us said that when it was moved to its final home (ie. this massive building), it was accompanied in procession by many of the astronauts that flew in her, and it was akin to a funeral procession. 

Of course it was ‘Challenger’, a sister to ‘Atlantis’ that exploded on its 10^th mission, shortly after take-off in 1986.  Another sister shuttle, ‘Columbia’ was lost on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere in 2003.  It was Columbia’s 7^th mission. Between these two disasters, fourteen astronauts were killed, seven on each flight.

Also in the Atlantis building is a 1/8 size model of the International Space Station.  Kids and even some adults can have fun crawling through its tunnels.

From there we went to yet another building where we experienced an amazing simulation of a rocket launch.  Designed by actual astronauts to give a most realistic experience, it was a violent, bone-shaking couple of minutes after we ‘took off’, then a most peaceful drifting through the starry heavens.  Unfortunately no loose objects such as cameras are allowed and so we have no photographic memories of it. 

Our final destination for the day was the ‘Heroes and Legends’ building, in which we saw tributes to the hundreds of American astronauts.  Alan Shepard was the first, in 1961, when he took off on a 15 minute, 116 mile flight into space and straight back down again. We saw the tiny (about 26m) rocket that launched him while we were on our bus ride around Cape Canaveral.

Interestingly, Shepard went into space a second time: in 1971 when he went to the moon on the Apollo 14 mission.  It was he whom we remember as the astronaut who hit a golf ball on the moon.

It was the year after Shepard’s first flight, 1962, that features in the movie ‘Hidden Figures’.  This movie tells the story of three brilliant young African American women who were instrumental in the successful launch of John Glenn, the first time that an American orbited Earth. I have just read that Glenn died just a few months ago, in December last year. The vehicle carried by the rocket that we saw launched has been renamed after him.

The ‘Heroes and Legends’ building was a beautiful reminder of these brave men and women, far more numerous than either of us were aware.  We were impressed to see that women and African Americans were well represented.

So as you can tell, our knowledge of rockets and all things space related in general has exploded (pun intended) during the last few days. Staying with aerospace engineer Damien and space mad future astronaut little Thomas has only encouraged us and they have both greatly contributed to our knowledge base.

So now we prepare to move on to our next adventure in a couple of days.  We travel, again by Greyhound bus, to Pittsburgh.  This will be a twenty-two hour trip – just as well it’s cheap!!