Kennedy Space Center

After breakfast at the American chain Denny's, we were on the road again to check out the Kennedy Space Center. Located just over an hour east of Orlando, and right on the coastline of the Atlantic is the NASA Kennedy Space Center. The site is near Cape Canaveral, midway between Miami and Jacksonville. It is 34 miles long and around 6 miles wide, covering 219 square miles. Around 17,000 people work at the site. Because much of Kennedy Space Center is off limits to development, the site also serves as an important wildlife sanctuary with only 9% of the land developed. We saw lots of sea turtles, an armadillo and an alligator, all while driving around the complex.

Kennedy Space Center is now the launch site for the Space Shuttle, reusing the Complex 39 Apollo infrastructure. The first launch was that of Columbia in 1981. Kennedy Space Center also has a landing site for the orbiter, the 4.6km Shuttle Landing Facility. However, the first end-of-mission Shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center did not take place until 1984 when Challenger completed it's mission.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is home to a number of museums, two IMAX theatres, and various bus tours allowing visitors a closer look at various restricted areas that would otherwise not be possible. We took one of these tours and the first stop was an observation gantry on the grounds of Launch complex 39. From here, the observation deck provides unobstructed view of both launch pads - 39A and 39B. It was a pretty hazy day, so the visibility wasn't great.

The Apollo-Saturn V Center is a large museum built around its centerpiece exhibit, a restored Saturn V launch vehicle, and features other space related exhibits, including an Apollo capsule. Two theaters allows you to relive parts of the Apollo program. One simulates the environment inside an Apollo-era firing room during an Apollo launch, and another simulates the Apollo 11 landing - it was pretty amazing. The tour also included a visit to a building where modules for the International Space Station are tested.

After a few hours exploring the Space Center, we made the long journey home due to Friday afternoon peak hour. Not many people use their indicator when driving here, and this obviously causes chaos... especially evidenced by the many accidents we saw driving back.