I will go through an entire day before I get to the real meat of this post, but for those of you itching to get to it, just like me, here is the quote!
Monday
Monday was travel day, I had to finish getting my bag packed, get my free breakfast, and drive myself the width of Florida over to Cocoa Beach.
It is interesting to note the differences, and pros and cons of different hotels... This isn't specific to America, it is just what I have found whilst travelling... The Econolodge in Tampa had awful internet, but had a bathroom that was big enough to fit 3 people in the shower at once comfortably. The internet in Orlando was amazing, but the bathroom was awfully cramped. The hostel in Nashville had the shared bathrooms, compared to the Indy hostel which had private bathrooms. It is interesting the massive differences between hotels with no real difference in the quality of the hotel.
I woke up too late for the free breakfast, but I knocked over some leftovers, so it was still a borderline free meal... It is probably lucky that the large size for take away pizza in America is about the same as a family pizza at home... There is no way you're finishing it in one sitting by yourself!
I was hoping to get a free shuttle from the hotel to the rental car place, but the shuttle driver was booked out until about 2 PM, which wasn't going to work for me when check-out time was 11 AM. I ended up having to take the shuttle to the airport with some other guests, got off there, walked down to baggage claim, out the door, and as I did a rental car shuttle came by... I got straight on and was taken to the rental car lot.
The rental car company that I was using was Fox Rent-a-Car... They were the cheapest company I could use... But the cost of renting a car still surprised me... I have never really had to hire cars, in America I have been in hire cars, but always hired by other people/companies... On this trip that would include my father and Dy... In Australia I never had because I've always been under 25 and by paying the insurance cost it made it non-cost effective... Except when I was at EY and the cost wasn't an issue... When I was signing the paperwork I really was surprised at the cost; even for the cheapest place it was surprising, but then, maybe that is because I am so used to either not paying for cars, or so used to taking buses and trains... Regardless, I was taken aback by it and was a little but annoyed at myself for not thinking of other, potentially more cost effective ways of getting around... Though for the convenience it was worth it...
The car I got was a Chevrolet Spark. It was the smallest car, and therefore cheapest car on the lot. They had offered me a deal on a couple of sports cars, but these were more expensive and I turned these down... Getting in to the car for the first time was a very worrying experience for me, not so much because I was driving in a foreign country, or on the wrong side of the road, or even that I was actually hiring a car, I've done all of those things before... But it was the first time I'd have done it by myself... This moment hit me a little bit, just a personal milestone... You know, one of those moments when you think to yourself, 'yep, I'm an adult now'... I mean, I still have the mental age of an adolescent for a lot of things, but I'm not sure how my adolescent self would have handled driving on the wrong side of the road, in a hire car, by himself, especially given he was struggling to drive in Australia with supervision!
Getting out on the road for the drive back to my hotel to pick up my bags was one of the most cautious drives that I have been on since that first trip I made into football traffic at Football Park as a Learner driver... I went slowly, I tried to make sure there weren't many people around, and I indicated with ages and ages to go before any turn so people knew what the hell was going on...
I packed my bag, loaded it into the car (with such a small car my bag took up the entire back seat!), and was ready to go to the Atlantic!
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| Chevrolet Tiny |
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| Wrong side of the car! |
The positioning of the car on the road was very difficult to begin with, as was checking mirrors... I, like I am sure many others who grew up in Australia, are hardwired when driving to do things a certain way. This isn't to say that we don't learn quickly though... Lane position in Australia you tend to drift towards the line to your right, or I do anyway, but doing that here means that you're running into the other lane... Checking mirrors in Australia I look up to my left, but doing that here means you're looking out of the driver's side window... It took a few moments to get used to it, and even by the end of the drive I was concentrating hard to make sure I did it properly...
Compared to driving on Australian highways the speed limit signposting was absolutely inadequate... In my view anyway... Potentially due to my not growing up on these roads and understanding speed limits here, but I found the speed limits to be signposted very seldom, and even when it was posted it was clear that no one followed the limits (aside from me and the odd person who was even slower than that!)
Some of my favourite places along the way were towns and landmarks with names like Zephyrhills and Dinosaur World... Jurassic Park already exists apparently, and it is between Tampa and Orlando... There were a few hairy moments on the way as well, it started raining very heavily at one point and I was right by a truck and another car, so I had to slow right down due to the appalling visibility... This was nowhere near the worst conditions I've ever driven in (driving in Ballarat at dusk through heavy rain and hail was easily the worst), but given the other factors I have detailed above it was a very worrying state to be driving in.
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| Driving route |
Did you know Disney had their own cruise ships? That mouse will buy and sell anything! I'm just waiting for them to finance their own space flights, and after acquiring the rights to Star Wars send up paying guests in ships made to look like the Millennium Falcon!
Arriving at the hotel I stowed my gear and then went for a drive to Merritt Island so I could go to AT&T to sort out my phone plan... When I was in Atlanta I had to buy a data package because I had burned through all my data, which meant that the money I now had in my account was not enough for my plan to roll over... So, I had to pay $10 for that, and had to wait around an AT&T shop for about an hour for it to happen... I did try doing it over the phone but my credit card billing address is Australian and therefore didn't have the requisite 5 digit zip code...
Getting out of the phone shop I walked around the corner for dinner at Applebee's... It was about 4:15 PM... When in Florida you do as the old people do and get dinner at a ridiculously early hour... With an attitude like this I could be the next condo President of Del Boca Vista! I had a nice steak with garlic mash, and a small cake for dessert. I did try to do the Ricky Bobby thing and get booted out of the restaurant, but I guess it is easier to get kicked out of an Applebee's when you've got a group!
I drove back to the hotel before it got dark, I didn't want to be driving after dark... I then chose to make the most of the evening and headed down to the Cocoa Beach Pier, where I walked to the end and saw some surfers riding the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
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| I like that it has an arrow to the beach... As though you needed the help whilst standing on the sand... |
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| If you look closely you can see the surfers |
Whilst I was there an old Canadian woman expressed her concern for the surfers to me and I got to talking with her... This lasted about an hour, which was a surprise to both of us, but we went through a bunch of topics including accents, the metric/imperial system, travelling, New Zealand, The Castle, The Dish, the wreck of the Batavia, languages and eventually we even got to accounting... The woman eventually introduced herself as Charlotte, and invited me to have dinner with her and her husband, however given I had already eaten I politely declined and retired to my room for a night of blogging and Monday Night Football.
I got to bed after the game ready for a big day at the Kennedy Space Center!
Tuesday
I woke up quite tired, I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked... But I got up, showered, got myself a free breakfast of toast with peanut butter (their peanut butter was a bit different to ours, but still very good), jumped in the car and headed for the Space Center. It was about a 25-30 minute drive to the Visitor Complex; it was a nice drive through Merritt Island, though the GPS wanted to take me the long way... I would have said 'via the Cape' but I think I was avoiding the Cape by following the GPS...
Fun fact: Cape Canaveral is the 3rd oldest surviving European place name in the USA. It was named by the Spanish in the first half of the 16th century. It was renamed Cape Kennedy by LBJ, on a suggestion from Jacqueline Kennedy, a week after John F. Kennedy's assassination. It was unpopular in Florida, and in 1973 the state legislature re-changed the name to Cape Canaveral.
I found parking, paid my fees, and headed into the Visitor Complex. It was actually really warm in the sun, which, wearing pants again, I was a little concerned about (considering my shorts were about 30 minutes drive away), but I figured I would be inside most of the day, or at most walking between exhibits, so it should be fine. The place had changed slightly since I was last there, and I also had more than the few hours there... Last time I was at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) I had to rush to get as much as I could in, which left a large amount of things undone... It was a real disappointment... I didn't want to have to rush again...
Upon entering you walk in to the Rocket Garden, with rockets from various stages from the space program, to my left was the Early Space Exploration exhibit, which was where I began my day. It gave a chronological run down of aviation, the rocket programs of all nations (e.g. during the War), then focusing on the American space program after Kennedy gave his speech to Congress. There was history from the Wright brothers all the way to the 1970s (may have been more but I did not read much after the Apollo program).
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| Entry to the Early Space Exploration Exhibit |
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| Control room from the Mercury Program |
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| Mercury Capsule |
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| Space suit from the Mercury Program |
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| Gemini Capsule flown by Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan on June 3, 1966 |
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| Apollo Program chronology and artifacts |
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| Indicative size of rockets all the way up to the Saturn 1-B and Saturn V on the far right |
There was a TV presentation (like, on a TV from the 1960s) with a newsreader in the 1960s style, who, for some reason has a woman from the present rock up next to him... A black woman from the present... Who is really peppy and happy to be there... Without putting too finer point on it, I am not sure a black woman would be as happy as the video showed to be back in 1962; it wasn't the nicest time for their people (as we covered in the Ribs blog post)... Directly before the TV presentation there was a short history of the state of the world, the human right's movement (with a quote taken from Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream speech (this is what got me to thinking about how happy a black woman would be to suddenly be transported back to 1962; and also how welcoming a 1962 white male newsreader would be to the aforementioned black woman... Suspend your disbelief). There were quotes from John F. Kennedy, pictures of The Beatles (quoting the song Revolution) and lyrics from Bob Dylan's The times they are a-changin', and a brief description of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were some things that you would find in the home, such as models of the Mercury and Gemini capsules that you could build at home, or thermoses. There was a few wall sized pictures of major contributors to the space race, such as Wernher von Braun ("the Father of Rocket Science", a German scientist who worked on the Nazi's rocket program, before working in the USA, eventually for NASA, and one of the architects of the Saturn V booster) and Yuri Gagarin (the Soviet Cosmonaut who became the first man in space on 12 April, 1961).
"Should I read into that?" Moment of the Day
*The newsreader on a black and white looking TV is reading the news, before the black woman rolls in, in complete colour, and starts talking about buying IBM shares... She then clicked her fingers, and lost the colour TV look to blend in with the black and white, noting that 'grey has always been my colour'*... Should I take that to mean that we are all the same? Is that what she meant? I mean that's not wrong, but still, is that what she meant by that? Or is that in no way a commentary on race? Maybe she was just saying that she prefers black and white TV?.... Hmmm.... You probably are over-thinking this Sam... Just listen to the presentation and then you can move on... But really, should I read into that?...
After the TV presentation there was a short exhibit on the Original 7 astronauts of the Mercury program, Alan Shepard, Virgil 'Gus' Grissom, John Glenn, M. Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, L. Gordon Cooper and Donald 'Deke' Slayton (who, due to health issues, would only fly in space once, in the mid-1970s on the Apollo-Soyuz Flight; during the Gemini and Apollo programs he was 'Coordinator of Astronaut Activities').
Around the corner was the Mercury control room, which was explained in the next part of the TV presentation. More computing power exists in any of our smartphones than existed in the control room of the Mercury missions. The control room in the photograph above was the control room for all 6 Mercury flights and the first of the Gemini flights.
NASA apparently chose the East Coast of Florida to launch its manned space flights for several reasons, the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean (which allowed for safe launch of rockets without the potential for debris falling onto populated areas), at the time it was a relatively unpopulated region of Florida (major occupants at the time were orchards, empty beaches and 2 military bases), and due to the Earth's rotation and Florida's proximity to the equator (stick with me here... As the planet rotates, the speed of the rotation is greatest at the equator and lessens the further you move north or south; therefore a spacecraft launched from Florida is given over 900 miles per hour worth of additional boost, saving fuel and increasing efficiency).
There was then a brief run down on the Gemini program, including the name... Gemini, of course, is the 3rd constellation of the Zodiac, and features the twin stars Castor and Pollux. The Latin meaning of the word means 'twins', side by side, which is how the astronauts were positioned in the capsule for the Gemini program.
For those who aren't aware, the Mercury program was a single astronaut, the Gemini program was two astronauts, and the Apollo program was three astronauts.
The Gemini program also resulted in the selection of a new batch of Astronauts, or 'the new nine', they were Frank Borman, James 'Jim' McDivett, Ed White, Tom Stafford, James 'Jim' Lovell, John Young, 'Pete' Conrad, Neil Armstrong, and Elliot See. There is a pretty good story about when they all met, having to use the same alias to check in to a hotel, 'Max Peck', although, I saw this on the HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon, so I can't really vouch for its truth. Though, if you are at all interested in the space program, particularly the Apollo program, give this series a watch, I thoroughly enjoy it! The Gemini program was the first time that the Americans were able to rendezvous and dock two spacecraft in orbit (this was achieved by Gemini 8 after lunar orbit rendezvous was selected ahead of direct descent for the Apollo lunar landings).
There was then a room devoted to the Apollo program, which gave a run down on the chronology, the new rockets used (the Saturn V being the major one) and some significant events (the first moon landing being the obvious one there). The Saturn V stood some 110m tall, and the five first-stage engines produced 680,400kg of thrust, for a total of 3,402,000kg on liftoff. These numbers don't make heaps of sense to me, but they sound imposing!
Each Apollo mission carried 3 astronauts, the Commander oversaw the entire mission as well as conducted the Lunar Module landing, while the Lunar Module pilot and Command Module pilot each specialised in the functions and controls of their respective craft. The Command and Service Module (CSM) would orbit the moon with one astronaut while the Lunar Module (LM) with the two astronaut crew would land on the moon. The CSM was designed to carry 3 men for 12-14 days, the Command Module included a crew compartment and heat shield, while the service module carried the major support systems such as propulsion and electrical power. During re-entry the command module's heat shield was required to withstand temperatures up to 2,742 degrees Celsius, which is greater than the boiling point of aluminium. The LM consisted of a descent stage for landing on the moon and an ascent stage for returning to lunar orbit to rendezvous with the CSM. The LM was in no way aerodynamic, however, it only needed to operate in space thus rendering the look and aerodynamics of it a moot point.
That was long-winded... But no apologies...
After I exited the Early Space Exploration exhibit I went for a walk around the Rocket Garden on my way through to the IMAX Theatre.
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| No apologies for detail |
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| Rocket Garden |
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| From this angle I almost look tall... |
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| Back at KSC |
There were two movies showing at the IMAX, one about the Hubble Space Telescope (narrated by Leonardo di Caprio) and one about the International Space Station (narrated by the unstable Tom Cruise)... I was unable to see either of these when I was last at the KSC, I arrived at the theatre at 11:59 for a midday showing, but the doorman wouldn't let me in, thus forever making my list... This time I showed up well in time and made it in for the International Space Station film... This was really interesting, even with Tom Cruise as the narration voice of reason (I know, I know, Tom Cruise is never the voice of reason...). Both of these films were in 3D, which was pretty cool.
After the film I perused the gift shop for a brief moment and then walked out to the tour buses to be taken to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. This was an area which I had to cut short last time, which disappointed me no end.
Those who know me well, like, well enough to get into this with me, know that I actually really adore the space program. The interest I have with it probably began when my father first took me to the cinema to see Ron Howard's 1995 film Apollo 13 when I was 7, and then grew into this fascination with the Apollo program and the space race. For me there is a certain romance about travelling to the moon, and in my view the Apollo program was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, achievements of mankind.
As much as the space programs of many countries continues to innovate, improve our world currently and for the future, and bring us closer to leaving the bounds of our planet and journey to the far reaches of the cosmos, I am more interested with the space programs and achievements from the 1960s and 1970s... Paradoxically, I am more interested in the history of space travel than the future of space travel...
I jumped on the KSC Tour Bus, before which I had to stop to have my photograph taken (so that later I may be gouged). The tour took us past the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), which apparently was originally called the Vertical Assembly Building; this is the iconic structure where the Saturn V rockets were built during the Apollo Program.
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| The Vehicle Assembly Building |
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| The doors can be completely opened so that a space craft can be moved to the launchpad some 3 mile away via crawler |
We got driven along a part of the crawler-way, which is a gravel laden highway, where the Crawler-Transporter would take the launch vehicle to the launch pad ready for a mission... These machine have 8 tracks, two at each corner, each consisting of 57 cletes, each weighing around 900kg. It is 40m wide by 35m long, and can reach the dizzying speeds of 2 miles per hour when unloaded, and 1 mile per hour when fully loaded... During the careers of the crawlers, which began in 1965, they have travelled more than 5,500km, which is like driving from Miami to Seattle...
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| Crawler |
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| Crawlerway out towards the launchpad |
Apollo 8 was the first flight of the Apollo spacecraft to go to the moon, it was flown by Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders. This took place 21 December 1968. It was originally meant to be Apollo 9, but delays with the LM caused a reshuffle of missions and those 3 men became the first men to leave low-Earth orbit, see the Earth as a whole, see the far side of the moon, and to see an Earth rise. On Christmas Day 1968, when sending back grainy black and white pictures on a TV broadcast, the crew read from the Book of Genesis, signing off with:
"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with goodnight, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and god bless all of you - all of you on the good earth"
-Frank Borman, December 25, 1968
Seeing the entire planet as a small grainy image, being broadcast by 3 men in a tin can, thousands of miles away from home, really does make me appreciate the technical achievement that the Apollo program was, but also makes me appreciate how fragile our planet is and how lucky we are to have it (and also how realistically petty our conflicts are when compared to the whole)... Once we use up our planet we don't have another one to go to... Not yet anyway...
We then moved on through into the actual launch control room used for the Apollo missions. They were very clear in telling us that it was not a mock up and it was the real thing. There was a simulated space launch of the Apollo 8 rocket, where the windows behind us glowed red and the seats underneath us shook... It was a nice touch!
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| Apollo/Saturn V Center |
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| Saturn V rocket |
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| Launch Control Room |
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| Launch simulation |
The next room we entered contained an entire Saturn V rocket... And it is an awe inspiring sight! It was broken up based on the stages of the rocket, but it was well over 100m long, and the sheer size of the engines and tanks really makes you appreciate the engineering that went into it and the power that this machine held.
Unlike last time where I was rushed, I was able to take my time and see everything, read everything, and watch everything. This was why I came back to the KSC, more than any other reason. The Apollo program was/is my favourite part of the American space program.
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| Saturn V |
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| At the base of the machine |
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| Saturn V 1st Stage |
Other Fun Facts: The Saturn V rocket is the size of two Space Shuttles stacked on top of each other
Roll On: The Saturn V served as the launch vehicle for Apollo and had 3 main sections, the S-IC, S-II and S-IVB stages.
Sick: The S-IC stage was responsible for launching the 6.2m pound Apollo/Saturn V vehicle; the 5 engines at the base propelled the spacecraft to a speed of 5,000mph. Approximately 2.5 minutes after launch the engines cut off and were jettisoned into the Atlantic.
Sick 2: After separation from the S-IC stage, the S-II stage ignited and propelled the ship to a speed of 15,000mph and to an elevation of 100 miles above the Earth. It burned for about 6.5 minutes before it was also jettisoned into the Atlantic.
Ess 4 B: The S-IVB propelled the spacecraft into Earth orbit by accelerating it to 17,400mph. The engine was fired for a second time after the vehicle had completed approximately 3 orbits of the earth. Upon reaching a speed of over 24,000mph the spacecraft entered its trajectory toward the moon.
LEMs & Ladders: The Lunar Module's ladder was so fragile that it could only be used in the one-sixth gravity of the Moon and would have broken if used on Earth
Moon Bacon makes it better!: The first meal eaten on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts consisted of bacon squares, sugar cookies, canned peaches, juice and coffee
Gloves don't come off: Each astronaut had custom made gloves... Neil Armstrong had small hands... You know what they say about guys with small hands right?... Yep... Small gloves...
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| Apollo 8 Mission facts |
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| Newspapers from around the world reporting on Apollo 11 |
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| Stage 2 of the Saturn V |
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| Apollo 11 Mission facts |
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| LM & Stage 3 |
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| Apollo 13 Mission Patch and the Stage 3 portion of the rocket |
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| Command & Service Modules |
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| Smiling... But too tall to be an Apollo Astronaut... |
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| Command and service modules |
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| To make sense of the next photograph... |
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| Touching a piece of the moon! |
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| Apollo 13 |
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| Moon rock from Apollo 17 |
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| The Apollo 14 Command Module - Kittyhawk |
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| I could use these for some of my kitchen failures |
My favourite Astronaut is Jim Lovell, partially due to the fact that I was introduced to the space program as a 7 year old through Tom Hanks depiction of him, partially due to the fact that of all the Astronauts in the program he is the one I have seen most in interviews and TV (though, he might just be the one I remember the most), though, most of all I think because he was the commander of the doomed Apollo 13 flight (and the story behind how he ended up there). He was meant to be the Commander of Apollo 14 but got shifted forward to Apollo 13 due to Alan Shepard needing more time to train... There but by the grace of god went he... To put a man on the moon was the greatest achievement of mankind, but to bring home 3 men sitting in a crippled spacecraft, hurtling towards the Moon, working through so many failures and problems of technology, would have to be a very close second in my mind...
The book Apollo 13 which was written by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger was a great read.
Written Quote of the Day that Wasn't 'That's one small for man, one giant leap for mankind' or 'Houston, we have a problem'
"That last footprint on the Moon? Check it out. It's my boot size." - Gene Cernan (the last man on the Moon), Apollo 17
I then left the Apollo/Saturn V Center, content in the knowledge that I'd seen all I wanted to see and read all I wanted to read, and had made up for a wonderful but disappointing visit 4 years earlier...
I went to the Space Shuttle experience, which similar to the Apollo section began with a short video, then opened up into a rather large room with the Space Shuttle Atlantis inside. Without being rude to the men and women who worked on the Space Shuttles, this was not of as much interest to me as the aforementioned Apollo section of the KSC. I went through, but went quite quickly, as I wanted to try to make the 4 PM showing of the Hubble 3D IMAX film. I made the film by avoiding the Shuttle Lift-off Simulator... The film was brilliant in 3D, because it took you through space and were able to see stars flying by and giving a sense of what exists in our universe and just how big it is! It also showed how infant solar systems are forming around start and black holes in the expanses of space... The universe is amazing!
After the film I went to the Astronaut Memorial.
I then returned to the Space Shuttle Simulator for a simulated trip to the Earth's orbit... Apparently the word Twang is a technical term... I thought it was something you'd hear in Country music, but no, apparently it refers to the Shuttle rocking back before lift-off... Who knew? Anyway, the Sim was full of kids, and was pretty easy. I'm sure the real thing is much cooler, no matter how much they told us that the Sim was realistic...
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| Shuttle Atlantis |
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| Shuttle and Moon |
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| Memorial Wall |
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| Apollo 1 |
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| NASA at night |
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| Rocket Garden at night |
I went to the Pier for dinner and had alligator... Legit, alligator... Was kind of tangy... But decent
I did do a video showing the eating of the ice cream sandwich... I may have been a bit generous when I said I would go to space for it, but it wasn't awful... A lot like eating chalk which became smooth after a while, followed by the taste of whichever flavour the ice cream was...
The internet connection in Miami isn't lending itself to uploading videos or photos right now, so you can go without... But just so you know, my voice and accent hasn't changed...
Miami next!
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