Yesterday, I allowed the rain to keep me a prisoner at the pirate's lair.
That was okay, though.
The break in action gave the astronaut's advice time to percolate into a game plan.
Brian Duffy had said, "First, decide what it is that you most enjoy doing. Then, become the best at it."
Well, if that advice was good for making career choices, it should be good for vacation choices, too.
On Sunday, I had made the entire day all about being with a real astronaut... and that was before I heard his words at the luncheon! After that, I made it a point to be at the Astronaut Encounter at 3 PM. Then, I was at Commander Duffy's side again for the autograph session.
In other words, I had chosen being with the astronaut as what I would most enjoy doing. Then, I had become the best at it, making sure to have memorable snatches of conversation at each face-to-face meeting with the man.
What a great day that was!
So, I had resolved to do the same for my remaining days in Orlando.
Today, I would most enjoy doing the KSC bus tour out to the Saturn V rocket and I would strive to become the best at it by learning and absorbing all the information out there.
Tomorrow, I would most enjoy doing the Cosmic Quest at the Kennedy Space Center, making an honest attempt to become the best at it and earn the awards in the game.
On Thursday, I would most enjoy doing the double time with the Deadpool as his biggest fan, and become the best at it, too, by golly!
With that game plan, off I went to Cape Canaveral... and promptly got lost. I turned off the 407 to Merritt Island... not realizing that was a town, not the actual wildlife refuge. Back on track, I again turned off the 407 to Cape Canaveral... another town, plus the air base. ACK!
But I did finally arrive there.
to put me on Annie's bus!
The former pilot clearly loved her job as tour guide -
and as rescuer of bees.
That's right! A bee boarded the bus and she took a
tissue and gently caught it, opened a window,
and we all watched the bee fly away...
and we continued our bus tour.
I was astounded and touched and happy!
The animals and all life here on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge are treasured and protected, as much now as they have been since 1963. The wildlife habitat occupies 90% of the 140,000 acres; the other 10% is used for NASA and the space missions.
The folks at the Kennedy Space Center are quite proud of only taking up a tenth of that vast expanse of land! Moreover, they gladly share their bit with the stray eagles and alligators - and bees - that don't observe manmade property lines.
How wonderful! I even got to see eagles flying, a rabbit in the shade of a street sign, various alligators patrolling the canals, and even two turtles crossing from one side of the road to the salt marsh on the other side!
It's the only part of the space mission that didn't get constructed in duplicate.
Each stripe, both red and white, in the flag is nine feet wide.
The star field is the size of a basketball court and each star is six feet, diagonally.
And the roof on top of the building is large enough for a baseball diamond, as well as parking.
The building can be clearly seen from State Road 405, more than ten miles away - Wow.
The pieces for each crawler were built in Ohio, then shipped here... where it took three years to put the six million pounds of parts together.
They truly knew what they were doing, though.
The crawlers are still operational, even after more than sixty years, and will be used for the Mars missions in 2020 and beyond.
Think of it like this: a swimmer kicks off the wall of the pool to get a headstart on the distance to swim.
To reach Mars, the SLS will give the Orion its "kick off the wall" into deep space.
The crawler will carry the MLP, with the SLS in place, to Launch Pad 39B.
Just as it has since the 1960's,
on this crawlerway, with one lane for each of its two treads across its 130-foot width.
Each forty-foot wide lane is constructed above seven feet of crushed stone foundation and topped with seven to eight inches of non-sparking Tennessee river gravel.
This equipment was built to last!
Quite impressive!
Several movies - "Armageddon", "Apollo 13", "Space Cowboys", and "Tomorrowland" are my faves! -
were filmed at this very site!
See that water tower? The water is used as a vibration suppression system during launch. The clouds of white produced then are naught more than steam!
New wiring, new pipes, new support structures - all the below-ground stuff that no one sees... but is vital for the safety of the crew.
Safety - that's why NASA has twins of everything built for a mission, just in case of problems.
As I said, quite impressive!
That white, vertical tower?
Yes, that's the one!
It's three miles away from the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which has a viewing platform for the launches.
How do I know how far away it is?
I listened to the tour guide!
This is the actual Launch Control Room used for the Apollo missions!
These days, it serves as a screening room for one of those early launches, complete with rattling windows and thunderous noise!
Once the rocket was off the launch pad, all mission control was switched to Houston, TX.
That city was large enough to support the families of the many people who worked at mission control.
Cape Canaveral and much of central Florida - pre-Disney World's opening - was mostly swamp, with no stores, motels, or anything much.
In that regard, it was much like my pill-box duty stations in the mangrove swamp (Panama), on a rocky hill (Okinawa), and on a deserted spit of land (Imperial Beach). One difference, though: each of those did have nearby townships which thrived on military patronage!
(smile!)
This is the moon rock that they have on display -
Lunar Sample 70215,287, a 17-gram bit of mare basalt,
collected during the Apollo 17 mission.
It's available for touching - so that is what I did!
Of course, I had done so many years ago,
when the ex and I had visited the KSC.
That was probably more than twenty years ago.
chicken salad panini, with romaine as the wrap,
and a cup of chicken noodle soup -
and enjoyed the view above me.
Quite nice, isn't it?
I really loved all the Apollo badges displayed
as art in the Saturn V room!
short film about the Apollo 11 mission.
When I visited the Neil Armstrong museum I had not known he was as much a real-life renegade as
Capt. Kirk was in science fiction.
This film, with the actual dialogue recorded in Houston on that day, made that clear!
When the landing computer on the Eagle went bonkers and Houston wanted to scrap the mission,
How had he been prepared for such a scenario?
Well, in a training exercise (much like Kirk had with
the Kobayashi Maru), the landing module computer
had fitzed out, too.
What a space cowboy, quick to react!!!
I found the story so fascinating that I watched the movie twice...
and very nearly went for a third viewing!
But, no, the time had come for me to return to planet Earth...
and maybe even make it back to the pirate's lair before the cloudburst?
No, that didn't happen!
However, thanks to that hard rain slowing me down, I happened upon John Young Parkway
at just the right time for the Weight Watchers meeting there!
What an incredible coincidence, wasn't it?
(smile)
Just another case of right place, right time, y'all!
i thank You, God!
1 comment:
I have to wonder what Neil Armstrong and the other astronauts would think of these advancements in spacesuit design.
My guess is they would LOVE them!
Remember, they were small men and those suits were incredibly bulky and heavy when they were on their flight missions.
Yeah for science!
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52787365
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