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| From Kennedy Space Center - Day 2 |
After leaving the Rocket Garden, we stopped at the Early Space Exploration exhibit. The exhibit has artifacts from the first manned spaceflights including the actual Mercury and Gemini capsules. You really appreciate the cramped quarters the astronauts were in when you see the Mercury & Gemini capsules up close.
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| From Kennedy Space Center - Day 2 |
There are 2 IMAX theaters at the KSC. At 10:00 we watched the 3D film "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon" which was written, produced & narrated by Tom Hanks. Dave Scott, Commander of Apollo 15, was the technical consultant for the documentary. The movie contains actual NASA films plus re-enactments of the first man on the moon and the 12 astronauts who walked on the moon.
After leaving Theater 1, we got in line to watch the 11:00 showing of "Hubble 3D" narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie covers the building of the Hubble telescope, its launch and the missions to repair it. We experienced close-ups of 2 shuttle launches and watched the astronauts on their missions in the shuttle to work on the telescope. But the best part were the 3D images of photos that the Hubble telescope has taken in space - you almost felt that you were actually flying through the nebulae and galaxies. After the movie we entered the "Eye on the Universe: Hubble Space Telescope" exhibit. Here we saw more photos of the universe that Hubble has taken.
From the IMAX theaters we went over to the Space Center Tours. We took the bus tour out to the LC-39 Observation Gantry which we weren't able to tour yesterday because of the launch of Falcon 9 rocket. On the way we passed by the Vehicle Assembly Building and saw a crawler-transporter next to it. Leading out the the launch pads is the crawlerway, which is a 100 foot wide double pathway.
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| From Kennedy Space Center - Day 2 |
The LC-39 Observation Gantry is 60 feet tall and we had a 360° view of the shuttle launch pads, the crawlerway and the Vehicle Assembly Building.
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| From Kennedy Space Center - Day 2 |
After touring the gantry and watching a short briefing film, we got on the bus to head back to the Visitor Center.
Back at the Visitor Center, we stopped at the Constellation Sphere Plaza. The Constellation Sphere is a 9-ton granite sphere with the constellations and stars on it and it floats in a fountain of water.
We headed over to the Central Plaza about 2:00 to wait for the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony which was to begin at 2:30. There were 23 past astronauts attending the ceremonies. We saw Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter & Hoot Gibson, just to name a few.
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| From Kennedy Space Center - Day 2 |
Jon Cryer, of 'Two and a Half Men', was the emcee. The 4 astronauts being inducted in the Hall of Fame were: Guy Bluford Jr, Ken Bowersox, Frank Culbertson Jr and Kathy Thornton.
We had hoped to stay for all of the Induction Ceremony, but we decided to leave early. It was so hot this afternoon and we were having to stand for the ceremony (we didn't pay the extra $$ for seats for the ceremony). We left the KSC about 3:30 and stopped at the McDonald's in Cocoa Beach for more Angus burgers. We had a great time today, but it was nice to be heading home.
When we got back to the RV, there was the Great Blue Heron chick walking around our RV. He had been looking at his reflection in the side of our RV and one of our neighbors was watching him to make sure he didn't start pecking at his reflection.
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| From Kennedy Space Center - Day 2 |
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