FLORIDA | KENNEDY SPACE CENTER | DONNE TEMPO | KUBIN
Kennedy Space Center - Where Dreams Take Flight (cont.)
From 1961 to 1963, The Original Seven or Astronaut Group 1, M. Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., John Hl. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I. Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Alan B. Shepard, Jr. and Donald K. Slayton, where the first to tackle manned space flight – proving that man could go into space, spend time in a weightless atmosphere, and safely return to earth.There work led to man’s first trip to the moon, on July 16,1969 when Apollo 11 put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon.
The KSC’s other defining moment was the January 1986 launch of the Challenger, in which all the crew, including teacher Christy McAuliffe died began at Kennedy Space Center.
The Kennedy Space Center succeeds in keeping the history and importance of every launch, not just those that splashed across our newspaper headlines, alive through the museums, IMAX theaters, bus tours and more.
It is hard not to feel the importance of the space program, and the dedication, and sacrifice, of those who are brave enough to climb aboard rocket boosters and fly toward the outer reaches of our universe.
Visitors to the complex have numerous choices to make and it cannot all be done in one day. A successful visit to Kennedy Space Center requires a bit of your own mission planning.
Your experience begins at the Visitor Complex located on Merritt Island. The Visitors Complex is a thorough destination in and of itself. Strolling beneath the clear, brilliant blue Florida coast sky, there large than life, is the Rocket Garden, a personal favorite where dozens of historic rockets are on display.
While not the only Rocket Garden in existence, it is quite spectacular.
Visitors can see the very rockets, the Redstone and Atlas rockets from the Mercury program. The Apollo Saturn 1B that went into orbit in 1975 rests on its side.
There are the Titan rockets from the Gemini program.
These rockets are actual working rockets that were the back-up rockets for those missions, but have never been fired.
Standing next to them you are overwhelmed by their shear enormity. Their size is something that one does not grasp watching a televised broadcast, or even an Imax movie.
Check in at the Visitor Complex to check the times of the IMAX Space Films that feature remarkable cinematography that is shown in two giant theaters. “Magnificent Desolation Walking on the Moon 3D” realistically takes the viewer to the lunar surface through NASA footage and live-action reproductions of the lunar landscape while “Space Station 3D) shares the journey and the life of the men and women aboard the International Space Station.
Because great challenges come with great risks, time should be spent at the moving Astronaut Memorial, a tribute to the twenty-four men and women who have died in pursuit of space exploration.
The Astronauts Monument is 41-1/2 feet high by 50 foot wide. Its black granite surface is highly reflective of the very heavens these heroes from the Space Shuttles Columbia and Challenger and Apollo 1, as well as those that have perished in training and commercial airplane accidents, dreamed to reach.
Fewer than 500 men and women have flown in space. When you consider that there are over six billion people in this world that is just not too many.
Each day at the Kennedy Space Center guests are given the opportunity to meet one of the members of the NASA Astronaut Corps.
These men and women are treated like the celebrities they are by the NASA Space Center crew and it is thrilling to step before them for a picture, an autograph or to ask a questions.
This experience can be enhanced with the “Lunch with an Astronaut” program that combines a tasty hot lunch meal – with incredible deserts – with the chance to meet an astronaut.
A small group of guests are treated to a talk by the astronaut followed by a question and answer period. During our encounter we met Astronaut William R. Pogue.
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