Astronauts for a day

John, Will, and I visited the Kennedy Space Center last week.  We had hoped to do this trip at some point, and, since Atlantis is now on the launch pad, I thought we should seize our last opportunity to view it before it (and the rest of the shuttles) are retired.  We left Anna at home with Leah so Will could enjoy our undivided attention. :-)

Fun spinning granite constellation ball--John and Will tried to make it change directions:

Following some friendly advice, I booked us on the "Discover KSC" tour, which is a 2-hour bus ride that takes you to the closest viewpoint for the shuttle (which is still a mile away from the pad--the regular tour gets you within 3 miles of the launch pad).

Here's a view of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the distance--that is the building where the shuttle is assembled.  They wheel the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad on a "crawler" that travels at less than 1 mph--with that slow speed and all the adjustments that have to be made, it takes 7-8 hours for the shuttle to make the 3-mile-trip to the launch pad.

Here's a photo of the shuttle from the same view point:

We then traveled to a viewpoint only 1 mile away from the launch pad.  Here are the close-up shots:

The only visible parts of the shuttle are the external fuel tank and the rocket boosters.  The orbiter is hidden by a protective shield until about 8 hours prior to the launch. I'm not sure Will ever made the connection that the orbiter--which is the part of the shuttle he recognizes--was attached to the other side!

(For those who haven't watched a shuttle launch--the rocket boosters are released 2 minutes after launch, recovered from the ocean, and reused.  That orange thing is the external fuel tank, and it is released about  8 minutes after launch and disintegrates in the atmosphere.  It's the only part of the shuttle that is not reused.  On a clear day from our house, about 50 miles north of the launch pad, we can see the rocket boosters fall back and the rest of the shuttle keep going.)

Here's Will, blasting off:

While John and I were taking a gander at the rocket, Will found a small turtle.  Now, I am usually quite the spoilsport, but tried not to protest when I saw Will touching it--I was alternately worried that it might be a snapping turtle or (worse) that it might be harboring Salmonella and make Will sick right before Elizabeth's wedding weekend.  Well, neither of those things were true, but the tour guide had a conniption and yelled at Will to put it down.  I thought he was overreacting--Will is quite the animal lover and had no intention of hurting the turtle.  But the guide was totally in the right:--apparently, that is a baby gopher tortoise and is endangered.  It's actually against Florida law to handle them.  So I'm just going to plead the fifth on Will's behalf as to how that turtle arrived on the concrete step, but learn from us and don't touch one of these if you see them!  (And that little turtle was safely returned to the patch of grass from whence he came.)

After that, we saw the Shuttle Landing Facility and lots of administrative buildings, and then we were dropped off at the Apollo/Saturn V center.  Other fun things we did: toured a mock-up of an orbiter (the cabin in those things is shockingly small!), blasted off in the Shuttle Launch Experience simulator (so fun!), and viewed all sorts of space-related stuff, from moon rocks to space suits.  Finally, we watched a 3D IMAX movie about the International Space Station.

On the way out, Will posed for a photo with an astronaut:

(Obviously not a real astronaut.  But for a few extra bucks, you can have lunch with a real astronaut!)

And he bought a toy Discovery shuttle in the gift shop, and proceeded to fly it all the way back to the car:

I'm pretty sure this cemented his desire to be an astronaut when he grows up.  Unfortunately, it looks like he'll be catching rides to space from Russia at this point. :-(  Speaking of that, if you want to see the final launch, it's scheduled for July 8 at 11:26 am right now.  I'll be at work, but I'm sure I'll find a way to sneak outside to watch it!