The John F. Kennedy Space Center is located on Merritt Island on Florida’s
east coast. From here NASA launches Space Shuttles and rockets for both the U.S. Air Force and commercial companies, and Lockheed Martin launches Titan and Atlas rockets, and McDonnell Douglas launches Delta rockets, from the Cape Canaveral Air Station to the east. These are open to the public, but I would advise calling before dropping in.
Tours of Kennedy start at the Visitor Complex. In this section I will give you a brief run down of the Kennedy Space Centre then move on in more detail to the bits that made me go "ooooh!"
One of the highlights of the tour is the giant Vehicle Assembly Building, the Space Shuttle launch pads, the huge Mobile Launch Platforms on which Space Shuttles are assembled, and the slow moving and awesome Crawler-Transporters which haul the Shuttle on its Platform to the pad.
The Apollo / Saturn V Center. Ah! This houses one of the mammoth 363-ft (110m) tall Saturn V/Apollo vehicles that took astronauts to the Moon, and copious Apollo Program artifacts and exhibits.
Bus tours run until just before dark. Taking pictures is allowed everywhere visitors are allowed. Just make sure that you have your little badge on!
The building immediately in front of the parking lot is Spaceport Central, which has a huge number of fascinating and educational exhibits. At the information counter you can pick up schedules and free maps. When I see the word “free” it just encourages me to pick things up… I walk away with my pockets stuffed with free maps and leaflets.
North of Spaceport Central is the Gallery of Space Flight, where you can see real Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. They were recovered after their missions and brought here, to be preserved as part of NASA's history. The exhibits give an insight into the early days of the U.S. manned space flight program.
The Rocket Garden takes you from the tiny (and I mean tiny) Mercury/Redstone that lifted the first U.S. Astronaut into space, to the enormous Saturn IB vehicle. This Saturn launched three-man Apollo crews into Earth orbit during the Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project programs.
To the east of the Visitor Complex, there is a full-size model of a Shuttle orbiter. It allows the visitor a detailed look at the cargo bay, living quarters and cockpit of the orbiter. Not far from that there mock ups of two of the giant solid rocket boosters and external tank that supply the monster power to lift the Shuttle into space.
east coast. From here NASA launches Space Shuttles and rockets for both the U.S. Air Force and commercial companies, and Lockheed Martin launches Titan and Atlas rockets, and McDonnell Douglas launches Delta rockets, from the Cape Canaveral Air Station to the east. These are open to the public, but I would advise calling before dropping in.Tours of Kennedy start at the Visitor Complex. In this section I will give you a brief run down of the Kennedy Space Centre then move on in more detail to the bits that made me go "ooooh!"
One of the highlights of the tour is the giant Vehicle Assembly Building, the Space Shuttle launch pads, the huge Mobile Launch Platforms on which Space Shuttles are assembled, and the slow moving and awesome Crawler-Transporters which haul the Shuttle on its Platform to the pad.
The Apollo / Saturn V Center. Ah! This houses one of the mammoth 363-ft (110m) tall Saturn V/Apollo vehicles that took astronauts to the Moon, and copious Apollo Program artifacts and exhibits.
Bus tours run until just before dark. Taking pictures is allowed everywhere visitors are allowed. Just make sure that you have your little badge on!The building immediately in front of the parking lot is Spaceport Central, which has a huge number of fascinating and educational exhibits. At the information counter you can pick up schedules and free maps. When I see the word “free” it just encourages me to pick things up… I walk away with my pockets stuffed with free maps and leaflets.
North of Spaceport Central is the Gallery of Space Flight, where you can see real Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. They were recovered after their missions and brought here, to be preserved as part of NASA's history. The exhibits give an insight into the early days of the U.S. manned space flight program.
The Rocket Garden takes you from the tiny (and I mean tiny) Mercury/Redstone that lifted the first U.S. Astronaut into space, to the enormous Saturn IB vehicle. This Saturn launched three-man Apollo crews into Earth orbit during the Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project programs.
To the east of the Visitor Complex, there is a full-size model of a Shuttle orbiter. It allows the visitor a detailed look at the cargo bay, living quarters and cockpit of the orbiter. Not far from that there mock ups of two of the giant solid rocket boosters and external tank that supply the monster power to lift the Shuttle into space.
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