Day One: Cape Canaveral January 2010 Trip

Titusville, Florida: We hit the road early Saturday morning at 4:30 am heading over to the East Coast of Florida to visit the Kennedy Space Center. This is my first visit to KSC since 1999 and my son’s first trip. He has been fascinated with the space shuttle and with only five remaining missions before retiring the shuttle, there couldn’t have been a better time. We coordinated the trip with the press office of Kennedy Space Center to ensure that a shuttle would be on the launch pad during the visit.

We arrived at the Kennedy Space Center and checked our dogs into the kennel on property. KSC offers a free kennel service for guests visiting the center. We then proceeded to will call to pick up our passes and to purchase an add-on tour. We chose to take the Discover KSC tour, an up-close tour of the space center with a stop at the closest place possible to the launch pad along with other stops along the way.

Our tour boarded at 10:20, so we spent some time touring the visitor’s center. First we hit the Rocket Garden. The Rocket Garden contains many of the famous NASA rockets along with capsules from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. We then toured the Early Space Exploration and Nature and Technology buildings. Our son then played on the playground at the Children’s Play Dome.

Before boarding the bus, we went over to the Space Shuttle Plaza and toured the Space Shuttle Explorer. A full size replica of the real thing, we took a look inside the cargo bay and the flight deck to see what the inside of a shuttle looks like. From there we took a walk to the Astronaut Memorial to pay our respects to those who lost their lives while chasing the stars.

It was now 10:20 and we joined our scheduled tour. We boarded the air-conditioned bus and headed to the secure area of the center. The tour began traveling past the industrial area. On the way we passed the Central Instrumentation Facility, the NASA Headquarters Building and the Operations and Checkout Facility. The Operations and Checkout Facility is the location of the crew quarters where the astronauts spend their final days prior to the mission. During this time, the astronauts experience the daily cycle of a 90 day orbit (45 minutes light/45 minutes dark) to help prepare them for their mission. It is here where they gear up for the mission and board the Astrovan enroute to the launch pad on launch day.

The next stop on the tour was the NASA Causeway. We made a photo stop midpoint on the cause way. From here we had a vantage point of the Vehicle Assembly building, Launch Complex 39A with the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad and the many launch pads on the Cape Canaveral side of the center.

After reboarding the bus, we headed back to the industrial area for a pass through of some of the other buildings in the industrial area. We passed through some of the testing facilities along with a closer look at the Operations and Checkout Building. The building was once used during the Apollo missions to check out the capsules from the missions. It has seen continued use as crew quarters for the space shuttle, but will resume full operations during the Constellation program once the space shuttle is retired.

From the industrial area we headed to the launch pads, taking the route similar to the one taken by the astronauts on launch day. We passed by the massive Vehicle Assembly Building and the LC-39 Observation Gantry enroute to a closer look of the launch pads. We first passed Launch Complex 39B which has been deactivated and has begun being torn down in preparation of the Constellation Project. We then made our way to the Atlantic Ocean over look, the closest we could get to Launch Complex 39A, approximately a half mile away. There on the launch pad sat the Space Shuttle Endeavour ready and waiting for its mission, STS-130. The mission will begin on February 7, 2010 and marks the final night launch of the space shuttle.

After leaving the overlook, we made a brief photo stop at the Vehicle Assembly Building. Its hard to believe that the building is actually the size of a 52 story building. To put it into perspective here are some facts on the American Flag on the side of the building; the stars are six foot each, the blue union is the size of a regulation basketball court and the stripes are large enough for a full size charter bus to drive down the middle of each one. It is from within this massive structure where the shuttle goes vertical and is attached to the fuel cell and rocket boosters before heading out to the launch pad. Behind the VAB, we caught a glimpse of the crawler. These massive machines are responsible for taking the shuttle from the VAB to the launch complex.

The final stop of the up-close tour was the Shuttle Landing facility. The 15,000 foot runway is one of the longest runways in the world. It is the primary landing site for the space shuttle.

This concluded the Discover KSC tour and we joined up with the regular admission tour at the Apollo-Saturn V Rocket Center. As you enter the building, you begin the tour in the firing room. Here you will witness a launch of the Saturn V rocket. Once the go for launch commands have been given the countdown begins and then the rocket launches. Once the launch is completed, the doors opened and we were in the center. The highlight of the center was the full sized Saturn V rocket that stretched most of the building. We toured the exhibits and then ate lunch at the Moon Rock Café.

We then boarded the bus enroute to the final stop of the day, the International Space Station Center. We went to the overlook at the processing center and saw the space station components ready to be loaded onto Space Shuttle Endeavour. Afterwards we returned to the entrance and walked through the replica of the actual space station. We then took the bus back to the visitors center, picked up the dogs and headed to the hotel for the evening.

We checked into our hotel, the Radisson Resort at the Port in Cape Canaveral. The Radisson resort is just steps away from the cruise port and the cruise ships there were a giant tease. We made our way to the room and unloaded the truck.

Then we headed over to the port to watch the cruise ships depart for their cruises. We found a good spot at a county park alongside the port. From the shoreline we watched Carnival Dream and Disney Magic embark on their Caribbean cruises, wishing we were onboard and heading to the warmer waters.

We then hopped back into the truck and headed down A1A to explore the island. We made a stop at the beach in Cocoa Beach before driving further south. We made it as far south as Melbourne Beach before turning back north and heading to dinner. We had dinner at Durango’s and then retired for the night back at the hotel.