While visiting our son and girlfriend in Florida I had wanted to see the
Kennedy Space Center. Once we got there.. well there was some discussion of
not going because it was a 2 hour drive one way... Well I am so glad we
decided to take the drive. There were so many things I remembered as a child
and young man. The picture to the left is called Rocket Garden because this is
where they grow the rockets used for space. :-). There is a lot to see and
explore here. We did not even have time to watch any of the IMAX shows
included in the admission price.
click photo to enlarge
Whoa... the picture to the left if the actual control room and equipment
used for the launch of the Apollo and earlier missions. I mean I could
remember seeing this live on TV. In July of 1969 I was 14 years old and I
remember watching Neil Armstrong take the fist steps on the moon. I can
recall going out at night during that mission looking at the moon and
thinking wow there really is a man on the moon. There were displays on Civil
Defense and we explained to our son and girlfriend that as young children in
school we had to practice Duck and Cover drills in case of Nuclear
attack. The Civil Defense shelters that were scattered around. For Karen and I
we were pretty young and they stopped these drills about the time I was in
second grade but you remember things like this.
click photo to enlarge
To the left is launch pad 13. In this area you are on a bus tour so I had to
take pictures through the windows. But for sure I recall the launch days of
rockets in school where they would bring a TV set into the classroom to
watch. This is today's launch pad and there is not much structure as it is
now on the crawler that brings the rockets out for launch. What a wonderful
place to visit and recall America's great history of space exploration and
president Kennedy's challenge to America with "We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but
because they are hard." Some of the older things on display from our
childhood did not have the dramatic affect on the kids as it did for Karen
and I. Stephen Jr had actually been to the space center before and he was
lucky enough to have watched a shuttle launch.
