Cape Kennedy
Monday, February 28, 2011 
I spent the day yesterday touring Cape Kennedy with my family. My father used to work for NASA and assisted on the Apollo 1-11 launches. He also did the prep work for Apollo 12 & 13 (When asked about Apollo 13, my dads responds with "my part worked"). It was really special to tour the NASA grounds & hear my dad's stories from back in the day. He hadn't been to many of these spots since he left in 1969.
We walked the "rocket garden," an area that displays both manned and unmanned shuttles.
The Titan II – part of the Gemini mission – stands at 109 feet tall.
And then we saw the actual control room from the Apollo 8 launch – the one that sent the first men to the moon with no landing. (My dad's work station was on the far right side). NASA does a fabulous simulation of the actual December, 1968 launch. The consules light up, an official clock counts down, video monitors show real footage of both the control room & shuttle launch. I'm pretty sure I spotted my dad in one of the video clips, but it was hard to tell for sure. My family agreed that this experience was the best part of our day!
Our tour continued to the launch pads & we traveled along the Banana River and through the Merritt Island Wildlife refuge. We saw LOTS of animals including manatees, dolphins, wild pigs, alligators, egrets, bald eagles, spoonbills and turtles. Um, this was pretty awesome.
Rockets are moved from Point A to Point B with the help of giant crawlers...
Just a few days ago, Discovery took off from Launch Pad 39A, below....
This moon rock is estimated to be 3.7 billion years old.
We crawled in some rockets...
Saw the Apollo 14 capsule (which was part of a lunar mission)....
My dad's old office was on the 24th floor (behind the American flag) in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) – The launch control rooms are in the low building to the right. The red stripes on the flag are each more than 8 feet wide, and the stars are 6 feet in width.
It was a really special day for us – so thankful that we had the experience.
Reader Comments (1)
aw yay! what a special day:) i didn't know your dad used to work for NASA. that is so cool! love that he said, "my part worked." haha.
enjoy your family time in sunny florida!!
love you girl!