May 15

The weather today at Kennedy Space Center was perfect; not too hot, not too humid. We arrived at KSC at about 10am. So did everyone else--it was packed! We made our way over to the tour departure location for our Discover KSC tour.

The tour was really well done, we got to see the Vehicle Assembly Building "The VAB" (as the employees say) up close. The building is B.I.G. It is actually larger than the great pyramids of Giza and almost as tall as our Washington Monument. The stars on the painted US flag are 6 feet wide each.

We also got close to both the 39A and B launch pads. Atlantis had just launched off of 39A less than 24 hours ago with astronauts heading to the space station, and the launch platform was still at the launch pad, as well as one of the two crawlers. The crawler moves 1mph (yes, one!) when taking the shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad. It is something like 18 million pounds. We were bummed out that we missed a launch by a day, especially since the manned program is ending after two more launches.

We stopped at the "remote camera location". This location is too close for humans to observe unprotected during the launch. It is believed that the shockwave would kill anyone this close. Our tourguide eloquently said a person's organs would explode anywhere less than 800 feet away. Back in the Apollo era, this bunker was used to shelter a generator that operated a remote video camera.

Launch pad 39B has been modified for the next generation of launch vehicles. It has a very different lightning protection system--3 towers versus a single “candle stick”. Here you can see the 39B launch pad, water tower, and the liquid hydrogen tank.

We also got to see the other buildings and structures that are used for both the shuttle and space station operations. We saw the clean room area where they test and prepare items going to the space station. We could also walk through replicas of the space station modules, including the potty and laboratories. All very interesting.

We stopped by the Saturn V hanger to get a up close look at the giant Saturn V vehicle. The scale was impressive.

Back at the main center, we took in the rocket garden, watched a few videos and took a run in the shuttle launch simulator. Michele said the simulator about shook her to death. It goes through 8 minutes of liftoff into "orbit".

We left about 15 minutes before the center closed. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to give the “G force machine” a shot at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Maybe next time.

For today’s “picture of the day” we leave you with this question….what is it?

Tomorrow we depart the lovely Florida beaches and head north and inland to Augusta, GA, as we make our way to the Great Smokey National Park.