WDW : A somber side trip to KSC
Oct. 20th, 2003 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolphins_logWe planned our trip to Orlando in late January. After the loss of the Columbia on February 1st I told Juli that I wanted to include a side trip to Kennedy Space Center. We took a tour of the center back in 1996, but now it was a little more significant to me.
We decided to take the trip early in our vacation, on the third day. It was bound to be a little somber, and I wanted to have the balance of the trip be full of fun and relaxation. When we arrived at KSC we found out that we could take a tour of the restricted area. All we had to do was go through a security check. Best of all, we could drive past the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. As it turns out this is the "only way" we would ever be able to see it, and we wouldn't be able to stop so we had to take pictures quickly.
Our first stop on the tour was the launch facility for the first two, manned Mercury Missions. We got to have a tour of the blockhouse where the actual computer equipment from those two missions is still in place. It's a museum now. I bet some of my friends list could tell me how powerful this equipment is compared to today's desktops. I have a picture of the memory banks that are housed in the next room. No picture here though.
We stopped at Launch Pad 34. This is where we lost the Apollo 1 astronauts during a test. It was only used one other time after that, for the launch of Apollo 7. Then it was abandoned as a memorial.
We visited here back in 1996. The same hush came over the tour then as it did now. All of the bus passengers walked slowly up to the structure, either speaking quietly or not saying anything at all. It's an awesome and quiet place. A very fitting monument.
That's all that was significant on this particular tour. We swung by Launch Pad 39 A but didn't get out. We could see 39 B in the distance. The only difference between the two is that 39 B is a few feet higher in elevation, though I don't think that would mean too much in Florida.
When we got back to the Visitor's Center Juli and I went out to the Astronaut's Memorial. It's a large slab of black marble that rotates to catch the light of the sky. On it is inscribed all of the names of the men and women that we've lost in the space program. That includes the test pilots before the Mercury program. Some of them were lost in plane crashes on their way to somewhere on Nasa Business. There is a large sheet of plastic covering the center where the names of the Columbia crew are carved. It will remain covered until all of the family members can be on hand for the service.
As I said in the beginning, this was a very somber visit. But I take heart. Back at the Mission Space Pavilion there were a number of plaques mounted on the outside wall with various quotes from significant people, people like Galileo, Carl Sagan, Neil Armstrong, Arthur C.Clark, and Stephen Hawking. There was one that summed up validation despite all this loss. It was a quote from Kalpana Chawla, a crew member of the lost Columbia STS107 mission.
We decided to take the trip early in our vacation, on the third day. It was bound to be a little somber, and I wanted to have the balance of the trip be full of fun and relaxation. When we arrived at KSC we found out that we could take a tour of the restricted area. All we had to do was go through a security check. Best of all, we could drive past the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse. As it turns out this is the "only way" we would ever be able to see it, and we wouldn't be able to stop so we had to take pictures quickly.
Our first stop on the tour was the launch facility for the first two, manned Mercury Missions. We got to have a tour of the blockhouse where the actual computer equipment from those two missions is still in place. It's a museum now. I bet some of my friends list could tell me how powerful this equipment is compared to today's desktops. I have a picture of the memory banks that are housed in the next room. No picture here though.
We stopped at Launch Pad 34. This is where we lost the Apollo 1 astronauts during a test. It was only used one other time after that, for the launch of Apollo 7. Then it was abandoned as a memorial.
We visited here back in 1996. The same hush came over the tour then as it did now. All of the bus passengers walked slowly up to the structure, either speaking quietly or not saying anything at all. It's an awesome and quiet place. A very fitting monument.
That's all that was significant on this particular tour. We swung by Launch Pad 39 A but didn't get out. We could see 39 B in the distance. The only difference between the two is that 39 B is a few feet higher in elevation, though I don't think that would mean too much in Florida.
When we got back to the Visitor's Center Juli and I went out to the Astronaut's Memorial. It's a large slab of black marble that rotates to catch the light of the sky. On it is inscribed all of the names of the men and women that we've lost in the space program. That includes the test pilots before the Mercury program. Some of them were lost in plane crashes on their way to somewhere on Nasa Business. There is a large sheet of plastic covering the center where the names of the Columbia crew are carved. It will remain covered until all of the family members can be on hand for the service.
As I said in the beginning, this was a very somber visit. But I take heart. Back at the Mission Space Pavilion there were a number of plaques mounted on the outside wall with various quotes from significant people, people like Galileo, Carl Sagan, Neil Armstrong, Arthur C.Clark, and Stephen Hawking. There was one that summed up validation despite all this loss. It was a quote from Kalpana Chawla, a crew member of the lost Columbia STS107 mission.
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Happy Birthday!
Date: 2003-10-21 10:34 am (UTC)Re: Happy Birthday!
Date: 2003-10-21 10:40 am (UTC)that's called my browser was being dumb
Date: 2003-10-21 08:10 pm (UTC)but in any case, Happy Birthday! Or un-birthday if the case may be.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-22 12:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-22 07:50 pm (UTC)