Day 57 - Florida Day 2 - 1 small step for man, $55 more for NASA

Space...
The Final Frontier..............
*dramatic Sci-Fi like music*

Headed down to Kennedy Space Centre(KSC) at Cape Caneveral with the snrs(Peiling, Jeffery, Raj and Estee) to get a close up view of NASA's space program. KSC is 5% NASA 95% nature reserve, so that means there are tons of protected wildlife in the area.

As we reached KSC we were greeted to the sight of a space shuttle, the current transportation of choice for astronauts. We went around to various exhibits like the rocket garden and watch an IMAX movie.

Raj! Watch out for the falling astronaut!


Rocket garden


Me with the base of a rocket

This was followed by a tour of KSC. Our tour guide was a very enthusiastic old man named Larry. He simply had some of the most amazing quotes.

"NASA works very hard to remove 1 word..... thats OOPPS"

"Over here is a very important building, many important decisions are made here" *Adrian excitedly takes out his camera* "They do it over coffee and donuts.... we call it the cafeteria"

"Here at KSC, there are about 5000 alligators in the nature reserve, but this is a rough estimate, cos everytime we send someone to count them, they just don't come back!"

Good ole Larry


Raj, Adrian, Estee, Jeffery and Peiling


A panoramic view of several buildings which do have some significance but i forgot.

What an amazing tour, I got to see the lauch pads up close, the equipment used to transport the shuttles and their rockets, and also the VAB(vehicle assembly building) where the shuttle is assembled with the rockets etc...

Mobile launch unit



VAB, can you imagine, the entire shuttle upright inside THAT building


Launch Pad, if there is a launch, the safety dist is 3 mile radius from the pad.

For someone who loves reading Sci-Fi, this was a dream come true seeing all the technology in front of me. The Saturn V rockets that launch the Apollo Missions, the Gemini and Mercury rockets that were the first few used in the NASA space program. I was gaping in awe at what was accomplished.

Mission Control


Its 1 small step for man, 1 giant leap for mankind


Saturn V rocket


Estee, me and Peiling touching a MOONSTONE


Lunar Module

In the evening we headed down to the astronaut hall of fame where we played around with several simulations. For guys, I do not recommand doing the moonwalk simulation, it just plain hurt.... really not kidding...

Jeffery doing a moonwalk.... for guys it HURTS


The Sunset of Cape Caneveral

Leaving KSC, I will remember(rather vaguely) the quote "Remove the word impossible from your vocabulary, for if man was able to land on the moon, nothing is impossible"

As the famous Astronaut Buzz Lightyear(yes yes yes I KNOW he is the one in toy story) once said "To infinity and Beyond!"


After Trip meal, notice where we are?