Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex, Cape Canaveral, Florida, 25th June 2016

Five Islands
John & Sue
Sun 24 Jul 2016 15:19
Wow, what a day, very different, interesting and a bit mind blowing really. We organised for Best Taxi to pick us up at 08.30 and drive us the 20mins from Titusville Marina to the Space Centre. She was just lovely (4yrs in America from India) and at $25 each way, good value. We got to the ticket window and the lady looked at us and asked if we were seniors. We laughed and said no. She asked if we were over 55yrs old and when we said yes she informed us we were seniors and we got a discount of $4 each (US$46+tax entry fee). This was a good start to a great day.
At 9am the American National Anthem was played. Everyone stopped and turned toward the flag and the Americans placed a hand over their heart.


The rocket Garden tells the history of American Space travel. 

This is the pod 2 astronauts would have ridden in. Just a titch small if you ask me.


This was the year after i was born. Truly visionary.




This is the 3 person pod


Can you remember where you were when they walked on the moon?

The International Space Station was built with the financial support of 13 countries (Australia was not one).


“NASA maintains a fleet of Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic jets for astronaut training and proficiency flights. The jets were produced for the U.S. Air Force between 1961 and 1972.

There is an Astronaut Memorial on the grounds of the Visitor Centre

These are the fuel tank and 2 white solid rocket boosters used to launch the space shuttle


As you enter this display building, you enter a standup theatre room, the lights dim and you are presented with the story of the Space Shuttle program. The video ends, the doors open and there in front of you is an actual shuttle.
The Atlantis Space Shuttle lies suspended with the cargo hold open. This craft did 126 million miles of space travel over 33 missions.

The heat protecting tiles look like a stiff fabric.


How to use the bathroom, obviously can be a little difficult. There were treadmills and exercise equipment hanging from the ceiling in the ‘cabins’. No gravity means you can fill every space possible and all the astronaut has to do is ‘swing or flip’ into the appropriate orientation to use the equipment.

The Atlantis exhibit also has a ‘Shuttle Launch Experience’ which is a simulator ride of what it is like to be launched into space. After walking up many sets of ramps you enter another video room where an astronaut who flew the space shuttle talks you through what to expect and what it felt like for him when you launch into space. You walk into the simulator capsule and strap into a hard chair. Your chairs tips you back so that you are lying in the chair, the position you would be if you were being launched into space. The countdown begins the noise increases, the instrument panel flashes and as the rockets fire the seat starts to shake. You launch and shake until the first section is jettisoned (which falls back to earth and is recovered) then the noise settles and the ride smoothes out as your seats comes back to normal sitting position. A fun interactive experience.

The bus tour takes you past the tallest single storey building in the world - this is where the rockets and shuttles were and are still being assembled.

This machine transports the space craft from the assembly area to the launch pad. Looks very similar to the track transporter the mines use to move draglines.

A launch pad, one of many.

The Apollo/Saturn V Centre houses the story of the Apollo missions and Moon landing. When you enter this building the first thing you experience is another theatre giving you the background of this part of the space program development, then you enter a room and sit on benches overlooking the control used in the launch of the Apollo missions. You are taken through a launch with footage of the launch of Apollo 8. Noise, lights and shaking benches, everything is really interactive.

The back end

The pointy end

Moon buggy. The tyres are hollow open weave metal due to the dust. There is a ‘moon rock’ you can touch. Feels and looks like bubbly volcanic rock.

Unmanned landing module.

The highlight of our day was seeing 2 documentaries in the IMAX theatre. The first was “Journey to Space” which outlines NASA’s past projects, the successes and the failures, and the current push to land on Mars, an asteroid and the moon again. They actual had a test run, a week or so after we were there, of the rocket that will be used to launch the ‘Orion’ Spacecraft. The second was footage and comments of an Italian astronaut who spent 6 months in the International Space Station with 2 other astronauts. The footage/photographs she took showed weather systems and cities at night highlighting the differences between those with access to power like the USA and those with limited access like North Korea, which was virtually black compared to South Korea. Also highlighted was the damage being done to the large forested areas of the world such as the Amazon and what this is doing to the environment. 

The size of the universe is beyond my comprehension but the fantastic images that have been captured by space probes and telescopes at least give you a feel for how enormous it is. It was a really interesting and thought provoking day.