To the Moon...Kennedy Space Center

Where rockets were built.

How exciting it must have been to be around when the Apollo missions were going on! Seeing the Saturn V being ferried out of the construction building. Boarding the Command Module on top of the rocket. Wow!

There's the 50s and 60s era, which fascinates me by itself, then the general enthusiasm about that new adventure space travel at the time, the image of the astronauts (which I am sure was quite strictly built up and steered by NASA, and the government in the background; just look at the perfect family situation of the average astronaut in the picture below), the

Yes, the Corvette of course can't
be missing.

space race with the Soviet Union, Kennedy's challenge in fresh memory, the insane technical apparatus put in place, at the same time all that done with 60s technology (the average mobile phone today probably has more computing power than the moon mission, I guess). I kept on imagining this situation when I was in the construction building. Because of the mood that this image conveyed to me, I found the building was the most exciting part of the whole visit. By the way, the astronaut and Corvette thing was due to a nearby dealer who leased Corvettes to astronauts for 1$ a year. They raced them on a road on the Space Center.

Zip here!

The lines you faintly see to the right of the launch tower in the picture above are zip lines for evacuation in case of an emergency. From the catching nets at their end you can choose between a vehicle that drives you away and a bunker right there. The merit of both of these measures is rather dubious, though, given that a fully fueled Saturn V had as much energy stored as a nuclear weapon. Everything within a five mile radius would have been toast in case of an explosion. The tower as you see above, by the way, is a Space Shuttle configuration. They are waiting for someone to buy or lease it, and then modify it as fits their needs.

And all that in my mobile phone...

The Saturn V Center had a rocket displayed that was put together from spare parts after the Apollo program had ended. What a massive machine!

Now look right into it! Three, two...

Tank. Another tank. Another...

And almost the whole thing was fuel! They were sitting literally on a skyscraper's height of explosive fuel. Nice ride! And all of that just to propel a tiny capsule into space.

The Command Module.

"Hey Buzz, can we make a stop at the
moon? I gotta pee so bad, I..."
- "Sure, Neil, sure..."

When preparing for the moon landing, the astronauts had to decouple the Command/Service Module from the Spacecraft-to-Lunar Module Adapter, turn around, and dock with the Lunar Module, pulling it out of the Adapter and entering it. Sounds like quite a maneuver to me! And that was just one step.

I was both fascinated and a bit sad, or better, melancholic. First, considering these extraordinary times, and second, thinking about being a little kid, when my mom brought me to the museum to see the space stuff, and it was all so exciting.

It think I owed this visit to the six year old I have been, that has been so fascinated with space exploration, astronauts, rockets, the solar system, and all that.