On May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard made America's first space flight, and I made myself a promise to visit Cape Canaveral, as it was called then. It took me thirty-seven years, one month and two days, and it was worth the wait!

We planned for a year. It was our first trip to the USA and we were specifically going to the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of STS-88, Space Shuttle Endeavour, on July 9, 1998. However, after we had made all the bookings, NASA changed the launch date to December without consulting us.

So we went anyway, and had a lot of fun. We had booked a motel in Kissimmee, which is south of Orlando, and about an hour from the Kennedy Space Center.

Tuesday 07 July. Kennedy Space Center day.
The day started on a good note when Cathy heard the alarm go off at 7:10 am and promptly went back to sleep. I didn't hear it at all. I must have still been jetlagged after the flights from New Zealand to Orlando.

Next thing, it was 7:48 and we had intended to get on the road no later than 8:30. Much high-speed activity followed and we got away only 20 minutes late.

Using a map not really designed for the purpose, we found our way on to the wrong tollway - the Central Florida Greeneway - but stayed on it as it was pointing in the right direction and linked up with the Beeline Expressway, which points straight at the Space Coast.

Florida is flat! As we drove east, the highest points we encountered were the overpasses on the Beeline. Eventually, we turned left off the Beeline on to Route 407, the Challenger Memorial Parkway, until it met 405 from Titusville.

We turned right and, a little over 4 kilometres later, we passed a Redstone rocket and a full-size Shuttle orbiter mock-up at the Space Camp and Astronaut Hall of Fame. Just past that is the Kennedy Space Center Gate 3, from where, we drove across the drawbridge over the Indian River and another ten kilometres along the NASA Parkway to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. To the north-east, we could see the Vehicle Assembly Building through the smoke haze (big bush fires in Florida at the time), with the Shuttle launch pads barely visible beyond it. The size of the VAB can fool you; we could clearly see it as an enormous block, just over there, but we didn't realise until we looked at the map later that "just over there" was just over twelve kilometres away!

Suddenly, above the trees along the right side of the road, we saw the tops of rockets, and then, beside an intersection with traffic lights, a Space Shuttle External Tank, flanked by two boosters. We had arrived.

We pulled into a gigantic car park and parked as close to the Visitor Center entrance as we could. Entry into the Center in 1998 was free, but you paid for everything in there. Now, you have to pay to get in…and still pay for everything in there…

We arrived just before 10 am, to find that not many visitors had showed up, so we had a bit of elbow room for half an hour, during which time, one of the staff gave a group of us a conducted tour of what they call the Rocket Garden.

Presenting a slice of NASA's history, the Rocket Garden contains two early Junos, a Mercury/Redstone of the type that launched Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom, two Atlases, one with a Mercury spacecraft, a Gemini/Titan and, the pride of the collection, a Saturn 1b, with Apollo spacecraft.

At 69 metres high, the Saturn 1b/Apollo is too tall to stand upright without support, so it lies on its side. It is an impressive vehicle, but it was completely overshadowed by what we saw later.

The Rocket Garden also contains two Saturn 5 first- and second-stage engines, a Saturn 1B first stage engine, a full-scale mock-up of a lunar lander, and one of the original crew access gantries that the Apollo astronauts walked along, over 100 metres above the ground, to enter their space ships. We couldn't resist following in their footsteps for a tiny part of their epic odysseys…

Our guide recommended that we take the bus tour of the KSC as soon as possible because the afternoon forecast was for rain. We took the advice on the spot and paid $19 each for a Crew Pass, which gave us the tour and an Imax movie.

Our decision turned out to be a good one, because we did not return to the Visitor Complex until late afternoon. If we had delayed taking the bus tour, we would have been rushed to complete it by the end of the day and would likely have missed seeing some things.

By now, the hordes were arriving and they all had the same idea, which meant long queues for the buses. However, no one had to stand in the heat for very long as the buses were pulling out as fast as they were loading.

The bus driver told us that there would be three stops and that we could stay at each one for as long as we liked, because the buses would be coming by every 10 minutes.

The KSC covers over 300 square miles, most of which is the Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. The thought occurred to us that some of the wildlife could be getting pretty deaf by now…

Along the Kennedy Parkway, which is the main north/south road through Merritt Island between gates 2 and 4, the driver pointed out a pine tree containing a bald eagle nest that has been continuously occupied since 1960. The nest has obviously been added to over the years and is enormous! Three bedrooms and a pool room, at least.

In the distance, growing steadily larger as we approached, was the definitive KSC landmark; the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the Shuttles are assembled. It looks just like all those photographs, except bigger!

Built in the 1960s for the Apollo Moon programme, it was for a while the largest building on Earth. The flag and star that were painted on the side of the VAB for the US Bicentennial celebrations in 1976 used nearly 23,000 litres of paint. The driver said that just one of the stripes on the flag is wide enough for the bus to drive down.

At the VAB, the bus turned east on to the Saturn Causeway that runs out to launch pads 39A and B. About 500 metres south east of the VAB, on the other side of the Saturn Causeway, is the press site, which is located at the edge of the barge basin where the Shuttle External Tanks arrive. On the lawn is the large digital countdown clock that we see on TV during Shuttle launches. The clock also dates back to the Apollo days.

About 1.5 kilometres from Pad 39A, the bus pulled up at our first stop; the Complex 39 Observation Gantry. Completed in late 1997, the gantry is situated beside the crawlerway along which the Shuttles travel to the launch pads, at the junction where the crawlerway branches off the Pad 39B.

The crawlerway is as wide as a four-lane freeway, but the traffic on this freeway weighs nearly 8,000 tons and has a top speed of 3 kilometres an hour!

TV screens inside the enclosed top deck of the Observation Gantry showed different phases of Shuttle servicing and preparation for launch. An open viewing gallery runs around the outside of the gantry, giving a panoramic view of the entire KSC. We could see both the Launch Complex 39 pads and, to the south, on the coast side of the Indian River, Complexes 17, 36, 40 and 41, where the Deltas, Atlases and Titans are launched.

In the distance to the south-west, the buildings of the distant industrial and administration area were visible above the trees, while, far beyond the VAB, we could see the top of the Mate/Demate Device that lifts the Orbiters from the back of the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Not far from that, in our line of sight was our next stop: the Apollo/Saturn 5 Center.

Suspended from the Observation Gantry's second level is a Space Shuttle Main Engine that was retired after 15 flights. It is a most marvelously intricate piece of machinery.

One of the appreciated features of the gantry was being able to stand in a shady spot and let the breeze blow around us. Magic! July in Florida is warmer than we are used to in New Zealand.

At one point, the public address system announced approaching rain and advising people on the gantry to move under cover. Sure enough, a few minutes later the first fat drops arrived, followed rapidly by all the other drops. There was plenty of shelter and no one got wet unless they wanted to.

We watched a short Shuttle video in the ground-level theatre, then went next door into the Exhibit Gallery, containing Shuttle components, static models, and a working model of a launch pad.

Having used up the Observation Gantry, we caught a bus to the next stop: the Apollo/Saturn 5 Center, a couple of miles to the north of the VAB. Along the way, the driver pointed out the occasional alligator in the lakes beside the road and said that there are around 6,500 of them in the reserve. Unpaid security guards, he called them.

The center was built to house the KSC's last Saturn 5 Moon rocket, which had, for years, lain on the grass beside the Vehicle Assembly Building parking lot. The other two remaining Saturn 5s are at the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Houston, Texas, and the Goddard Spaceflight Center, at Huntsville, Alabama.

As we turned off the Kennedy Parkway towards the Apollo/Saturn 5 Center, we passed a secluded viewing stand at the edge of the Banana Creek, where VIPs and families of astronauts watch launches in private.

The bus pulled up outside a large building and we trooped off, then, instead of swarming straight inside the main hall, took staff-members' advice and went into a small theatre that was made for standing only.

Another staff member gave us a short talk, then ran a six-minute video on NASA's rocket launches, some of which were spectacular failures, and ending with Apollo 7, which was a spectacular success.

At the show's end, the exit doors opened and we moved into the Firing Room Theatre, with terraced standing room facing a re-creation of the Launch Control Center from the Apollo programme, using the original consoles.

The show replayed the last few minutes of the countdown to the launch of Apollo 8, using the original recordings and with all the consoles turned on. Each time a control room member's voice was heard, a spotlight illuminated his old console.

Three large screens played original film footage of the launch and the sound effects were overpowering! During a real Saturn 5 launch, the noise levels were so shattering that no one was allowed within 6 kilometres of the launch pad, and even then, buildings shook and things fell off shelves.

The show ended and the exit doors opened automatically. We filed out, right under the business end of the KSC's Saturn 5! We just stopped and stared, and both of us said "ho-o-oly smoke!" We have always known how big the rocket is, but nothing prepares you for the moment when you see it for the first time!

Even lying down, this incredible machine dwarfs everyone standing under it.

By now, I was a basket case! For more than half my life, I had wanted to go to the KSC and at last I was there, and I was completely away with the fairies. Cathy would say something, looking straight at me as she said it, and I would look straight back at her as she said it, paying close attention, and not hearing a word.

This happened at least a couple of times - I think - but Cathy understood and I was properly contrite when I got my feet back on the ground about a week later.

The Saturn is lying on its side in a hall 130 metres long and 15 metres high. The three stages are separated, but at the same distance apart as if they were still connected by the interstage collars, so you can still see how long the complete vehicle is, as well as details of the second and third-stage engines.

We spent three or four hours at the Apollo/Saturn 5 Center and, for the first hour, wandered around with our eyes sticking out on stalks, then had lunch in the Moon Rock Cafe, with an unused Lunar Lander hanging above our heads, and the rain coming down outside the windows.

Across the hall from the cafe, a window in the wall gives a view into the cramped interior of a lunar lander mockup, and just along from that is a training version of the Lunar Rover that Apollos 15, 16 and 17 took to the Moon.

Nearby is the oldest thing that you will ever touch; a piece of Moon rock in a display case that you can put your hand inside.

At the far end of the hall are two Apollo space craft. One, the last Apollo to fly, docked with a Soviet Soyuz in 1975. Mercury astronaut, Deke Slayton, finally got his space flight in this Apollo.

The other, displayed attached to a Service Module, was never used, but was adapted as a rescue craft, if required, for the Skylab crews. Later, it was the back-up for the Apollo-Soyuz mission. It is interesting to see just how cramped the Apollos really were.

Beside the two Apollos is the top 50 feet of one of the Saturn 5/Apollo launch towers. The other two were modified for the Shuttle programme.

The Lunar Theatre, off the main hall, replays the Apollo 11 Moon landing, with original soundtrack and a half-size lander descending from the ceiling, then separating for lift-off. Commentary is provided by James Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13) and Neil Armstrong.

The rain stopped and we finally dragged ourselves away to the bus, for the last stop; the International Space Station Center, several miles back past the VAB, in the industrial and administration area.

The south-bound lane of the Kennedy Parkway between the Apollo/Saturn 5 Center and the VAB is wider than the rest, being part of the tow-path that the orbiters travel from the Shuttle Landing Facility to the Orbiter Processing Facility. In the distance to the west, above the trees, was the top of the Mate/Demate frame at the south end of the SLF.

As we passed the VAB again - it is impossible to ignore - we saw the three bays of the OPF, containing Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour. Atlantis was, at that time, in Palmdale, California for a major service and refit, and was due back at the KSC on September 23rd.

Ten minutes later, we pulled up at the International Space Station Center behind the Space Station Processing Facility. We watched a six-minute film on the International Space Station, hosted by Richard Cabana, the commander of STS-88, which was scheduled to carry the ISS Node 1 Unity module up to the ISS.

STS-88 was of particular interest to us, because it was the launch we originally planned to watch on July 9th.

The film finished and we went out into the Exhibit Gallery to walk through 3 full-sized ISS module mock-ups. The fourth mock-up is of one of three Italian-made Pressurised Supply Modules that are now carried in the shuttles during space station supply missions.

On the mezzanine floor is a mock-up of the Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount module, showing early 1970s space station technology.

A door on the mezzanine led out on to an aerial walkway that took us across to the SSPF building, where, from an enclosed viewing gallery, we could see the real Unity module being prepared in the squeaky clean High Bay.

Also in the High Bay was the first Italian Pressurised Supply Module, named Leonardo. The other two modules, Rafaello and Donatello, were built and delivered over the next two years.

We caught the bus back to the Visitor Complex, arriving at 6:15, in time to catch the screening of an Imax movie on the Shuttle, called "The Dream is Alive".

The Imax format was a new experience for us. Watching a film on a 50-ft-high screen, with a sound system to match, gives going to the movies a whole new dimension, especially when a Shuttle launch is shown from a camera and microphone that were less than 300 metres from the launch pad. When the Solid Rocket Boosters ignited and the Shuttle lifted off, the camera shook, the theatre shook, and we thought the roof was going to land in our laps.

The movie was narrated by Walter Cronkite, who knows all about noisy launches; in 1967, the first Saturn 5 launch collapsed the ceiling in his studio at the KSC Press Site.

Afterwards, we went for a walk through the Shuttle Plaza and stood under the Shuttle External Tank/Booster assembly. Big is such a little word when you look at them and think about what they do.

There were still things we hadn't seen at the Visitor Complex, but it was getting late, so we left them for Day 2 and headed back to Kissimmee.

Sunday 12 July
We had set aside that day for the return trip to the KSC, so this time, we did not ignore the alarm. Up at 7 and on the road by 8:20. We arrived at the Visitor Complex again - was it only four days since we were last here? - and caught up on what we had missed on Tuesday, because we had taken the bus tour.

We noticed building activity going on near the entrance and learned from the brochure that new attractions were under way.

We went to the Shuttle Plaza and looked over Shuttle Explorer, a full-size orbiter mock-up. A gantry has been build beside Explorer to give access on two levels to the payload bay and flight deck. Through transparent panels, visitors can see into the mid-deck and airlock, then go up a level to look into the flight deck.

The thermal protection tiles on the outside of Explorer are simulations that have been carefully painted to represent the colours of real tiles after the heat of re-entry, and there we were, thinking that they just looked grubby!

Explorer is fitted with real Goodyear tyres that have actually flown Shuttle missions. At first glance, the tyres look ordinary enough, but their specifications are anything but: 34-ply; inflated pressure 300 psi; maximum landing speed 250 mph; maximum landings 6 (in fact, they are changed after every landing).

Also in the plaza is a dome - a wonderfully, marvellously, air-conditioned dome (did we mention that July in Florida is hot?) - where we saw a full-scale Solid Rocket Booster cross-section, a modified booster field joint with 3 "O" rings, and a recovered booster nose cone. The nose cones are supposed to be jettisoned and lost when the parachutes open, but this one had somehow remained attached to its booster.

There is also a scale-model Shuttle on a Mobile Launch Platform, a space-suited dummy in a replica MMU back pack, and a medical experiment apparatus and kitchen, both of which flew in several shuttle missions.

While we were there, a staff member gave the audience a shuttle briefing, including a demonstration, using a blow-torch and a bare hand, of the insulating qualities of the thermal tile material.

She also showed us one of the explosive bolts holding the top fuel tank/booster mounting together. Heavy bolt; it was 60 centimetres long and weighed 60 kilograms.

Near the Shuttle Plaza is the Astronaut Memorial, bearing the names of the 17 US astronauts who died on operations or in training up to 1998. Their names are carved right through a large black granite wall, about 10-by-10 metres, and weighing 60 tons. Behind each name, on the back side of the wall, is a mirror that catches the sunlight and shines through the name. The wall rotates on a drive to follow the Sun through the day, so that the names are always illuminated, but while we were there, the drive was not working.

The memorial is beside a small lake of murky green water, in which fish, turtles and a few alligators feel their way around. In one corner of the lake, visitors were throwing potato chips to mamma alligator and some of her offspring.

At 12:30, we watched the Imax movie, "L5, The First City in Space", in 3-D. The film was projected on to the screen as two overlapping images, while we viewed it with special goggles, giving a very realistic 3-D effect.

Next to the movie theatre building is the Gallery of Spaceflight, which displays space paintings by various artists. It also contains an unmanned Mercury capsule, Gemini 9, flown in June 1966 by Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford, and a full-scale model of a Russian Soyuz. There is also a replica of Ranger 7 - the original left a dent in Mare Cognitum on the Moon in June, 1964.

We spent a hour or so in the Space Shop, which sells all kinds of spacey/KSC merchandise, and bought some good stuff.

We felt that we had done everything, so we left. It was not until later that we realised we had still missed the Missions to Mars exhibit and the Historic Tour of the older part of the KSC. Never mind; we will fix that when we go back in June, 2003. By then, they will have completed the new attractions at the Visitor Complex.

On May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard made America's first space flight, and I made myself a promise to visit Cape Canaveral, as it was called then. It took me thirty-seven years, two months and two days, and it was worth the wait!"

The Kennedy Space Center is the Greatest Show on Earth.