We witnessed the Space Shuttle Discovery launch - quite amazing and quite beautiful viewed from the beach! It is interesting, in my stupidity (& never having seen a launch from anywhere other than here in Brandon/Tampa) I assumed it would so much bigger & we'd see so much more of it since we were less than 15 miles from KSC. Well the tiny fact that the Shuttle is traveling at 10,000 mph escaped me...so yes it was bigger & cooler than what we see from here but no, I didn't get to see as much of it as I ignorantly thought. For every beat of your heart, the shuttle travels 5 miles during launch...WOW. I did take a lot of pictures and the really cool thing is that if I zoom waaaay in on the first shot, it is grainy (since it is traveling 10,000mph & my Nikon isn't that good), you can see the solid rocket boosters & the shuttle clearly riding on them. Really, really cool.
So then, on to KSC - we had a blast and we just bought annual passes because they are such a deal (only $20 more than day passes) and with the boys being such science lovers, we'll be back there a few times this year.
The last time we went Matthew was just a little over 2-1/2 years old - he loved it then but both boys were in awe this time and did great. We didn't see everything but that's why you get annual passes. We got to meet & talk with a real astronaut, Sam Gemar, who has flown missions on the Space Shuttle ..so that was a treat and Matthew had lots of questions for him! The boys loved the IMAX movie "Walking On The Moon - 3D" narrated by Tom Hanks and we saw lots of space vehicles, moon rocks, rockets, capsules, robots and of course, the BIG shuttle. Patrick is a bit confused though and calls the astronauts (when dressed in their space suits) "robots"...he is too funny.
The boys with an Orion capsule (& a birdie friend)
The boys make friends with a robot!
That is one BIG shuttle!
Gives you an idea of how big the rockets on the back of the Shuttle are, huh?
The Rocket Garden - these are actual rockets & capsules ...most were either "back ups" that would have been used if an earlier one failed or for rescue (the big, long Saturn rocket was for that purpose), since all other rockets have been disposable per se except for the Space Shuttles
Actual bridge the astronauts crossed to board Saturn rockets! Matthew is waving good-bye before blasting off!
This really makes you appreciate how tough it was on astronauts to go into space...this was their spacious seating in the capsules!
Photo Op with astronaut, Sam Gemar, after we got to talk to him.
Patrick was so excited to talk to an astronaut...he feel asleep in his chair!
We met a lady at the resort who heard we were going to KSC and clearly she didn't know Matthew so not her fault - but she talked to him in a baby voice with baby-like language saying "they go far, far away, you know...to that round thing up in the sky...we call it "the Mooooonnn". It was priceless, Matthew said "yes, but currently we are sending astronauts to the International Space Station & robot-manned space craft to Mars". She was speechless. She clearly did not have children!
5 comments:
Very cool pics! I haven't been there in several years, maybe it's time to go back!
Love the pictures...When we were in St. Augustine last year, we considered going...But with Jillian's personality, we decided to wait..LOL!
OMG! I would have loved to be there when that conversation with the lady took place! Priceless!
Great pics. That conversation Matthew had with that women is PRICELESS! So cute!
LOL @ Matthew. Glad you had a good time! I should dig up my KSC pics from before 9-11 when you could actually go into the space center. VERY cool! I got to see the actual shuttles and engines and the crawler and launch control center. Matthew would love it!
Post a Comment