Day 1: Arrival at Kennedy Space Center

The first part of my adventure began before reaching the Kennedy Space Center. I got off the plane in Orlando, and found the city much changed. This was my first time back since I lived here a long time ago -long before Disney and Epcot were out here. What a change! It had gone from a small, friendly community of umpteen lakes and beautiful Florida flora and fauna to a city that, though still beautiful, now needs traffic reports in the morning! Add to that the adjustment of flying to Florida with the time change (3 hours later than California not to mention the already robbed hour from changing to daylight savings the week before). I'm not sure what time my inner clock is on!

I arrived late, so there was little time for anything other than checking my email (one obsession that comes with my job), and retiring for the evening trying to convince myself that it was really late! I planned to meet KSC Quest member, Brandt Secosh in the morning, and wanted to start my stay here on the right clock.

Over breakfast, I had a bit of a preview the Kennedy Space Center from a couple I met who were visiting from England. Their comment: "Everything was so much bigger than we expected!" And boy! were they right! One of the first impressive sights as you approch the base is the Visitor's Center. Jutting out almost into the road is a rocket booster like what is used to launch the shuttle, and immediately behind it a full scale replica of the Space Shuttle orbiter.

I drove to the badging office and thanks to Brandt, the process of getting a badge to allow me onto the Kennedy Space Center went without a hitch. Actually, no one was waiting in line, and Brandt says I should have taken a picture of that since it never happens! I was a little late anyway, because I misjudged the time the drive would take. Brandt greeted me at the Headquarters building where his office is and gave me a terrific drive-around tour of the area.

The area is beautiful, lush and green. Did you know the space center and cape are on a gigantic wildlife refuge? I was distracted way too much on my tour by the live attractions in the canals on either side of the highway! We saw a small alligator, many armadillos, and birds that were breathtakingly gorgeous.

Actually, this orientation tour was really helpful, because there are two major areas in which the Ames group are working. Next to the Kennedy Space Center where Brandt and some of the Ames people spend their days out here, Hangar L where many of our group work is actually on Cape Canaveral which is an Airforce Base. The launch site is on this side also. When we were done, despite my distractability, I felt well oriented.

When the work day was winding down and most folks were headed home, I decided to go back to my hotel and write it up for you. Sorry, but I drove past the visitor's center again, and decided to go in. Actually I'm glad I did. The center itself boasts fun puns like: a rocket garden and the Lunch Pad restaurant! There are IMAX theaters and a chance to walk through that orbiter I mentioned before. I can imagine you could spend a whole day in the visitor complex alone, but I was mostly interested in taking the bus tour that takes you to places even a badge will not allow you to go.

On the bus tour the imposing Vehicle Assembly Building pictured above caused oohs and ahhs especially when we realized that the diagonal measurement of a star in the flag (painted on it for the bicentennial year) measures 6 feet. It is one of the world's largest buildings.

Beyond that building and leading to the pad where Columbia stands ready for launch, is a gigantic crawlerway where you can still make out the tracks of the crawler that carried the shuttle to the launch area. To give you an idea how much larger-than-life it is, each track is about the width of a 4 to 5 lane highway with a wide span of grass between the two. Needless to say, seeing a crawler was equally impressive.

The tour included a stop at the Apollo/Saturn V Center which is a great walk down memory lane as the history is reviewed and a gigantic rocket is displayed for viewing. One of the attractions at this center is that this is the area, known as Banana Creek where the VIPs and families of the crew members view the launch. The bleechers are not impressive but the view is!

The last stop on the tour was at the International Space Station Center where besides a gallery that explains some background of the ISS, allowed us to visit the high bay that overlooks the work being done on the USA section of this magnificent puzzle that will someday be assembled in space. If you would like more information on this, be sure to take some time to look through Space Team Online, another Quest project.

But despite all the wonders of man's creativeness, what continued to impress me the most about this place were the natural wonders! The bus tour drove past a huge eagle's nest with a diameter of 7 feet, and then as if on cue, an American Bald Eagle soared from one post to another so we could watch his takeoff and landing! What a magestic creature!

By the end of the tour, I was on information overload and headed back to the hotel. That night I linked up with BJ, Linda, Sandy and Ian from the Ames group for dinner.