Kennedy Space Center

Well, the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been officially postponed to the end of the month. I guess it was a good thing my mom and I didn't extend our stay in Florida to try and see it. (well, maybe that wouldn't have been so bad, 80-degree weather is pretty pleasant!)

Even though we knew we weren't going to see the shuttle take off, we decided to still use our passes to take a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. This is where Mr. Dub and my dad were sad they weren't with us. It is fascinating to see what people are capable. The technology and determination that go into space exploration is just astounding.

We rode on several buses to tour the different stations at the space center. We were able to see, well kind of, Discovery on launch pad A (it is turned the other direction, so you can't see very much of it). From there, we went to another building that houses Apollo/Saturn V rocket. This replica extends the length of the building and is massive.

The main engine ~ suspended between two flights of stairs.

The bottom of Saturn V rocket

Inside the Space Shuttle Explorer

Here are some fun facts we learned on our trip to the space center:
* The Crawler is the massive vehicle that transports the space shuttles to the launching pads. It takes 8 hours to go 3 1/2 miles. I think our bus tour lady said it gets 43 feet to the gallon.
* The launch marks the 133 launch into space.
* The Kennedy Space Center is on a federal preserve that house more than 400 species of wildlife - mostly birds!

At the end of the day, we drove to Cocoa Beach and had lunch and walked along the water. Such a great end of the day!