kennedy space center, cape canaveral, florida
Last November, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while visiting relatives living in the area. I had never been there before, so I went for it!
I may be a tech geek, but these amazing machines fascinate me. The sheer amount of research, time, and trial-and-error fueling these machines is simply incredible. Staring at the results of the most advanced transportation machines made by mankind is mind boggling.
If you have any interested in space exploration or that sort of thing, check it out!
Entry⌗
Right at the entrance, we were greeted by an array of rockets used over the years. The specific names of all the models escape me, but the largest one is the legendary Saturn 5 model - the most powerful machine ever built by man.
Motor Closeup⌗
The business end of this rocket looks more like a tangled mess of tubes and wires, but its a very advanced and complicated machine.
Stone Ball Skymap⌗
Instead of a boring fountain, the center had a map of the cosmos carved into a 2 ton granite sphere, suspended and slowly rotating on a water base. With enough force you could spin it a different direction!
Atlantis Base⌗
The solid state rockets and liquid fuel tank for the Atlantis Space shuttle, The picture doesn’t do any justice to just how massive this is.
Facility Panorama (Click the full-size image for a better view)⌗
A panorma with a view of several facilities. The location this was shot from was formerly a public viewing area for space launches, but has been deemed too dangerous since then.
Click the full-size image for a better view
TODO not clickable right now.
Crawler⌗
One of NASA’s two land crawlers, currently being outfitted for SpaceX missions.
Vehicle Assembly Plant⌗
This building is where every NASA space vehicle is assembled. Again, the picture does no justice to the height of this building.
Another Crawler⌗
Another one of NASA’s land crawlers, hiding inside.
Seaside Bunker⌗
Looking out into the Atlantic, one of the main launch platforms would have been behind me. According to our guide this little bunker was used to house sensitive equipment for detecting electricity in the air, as lightning is a grave threat to launches.
Lightning Towers⌗
3 lightning towers designed to direct bolts away from the launch pad that they surround.
Saturn 5 Rocket Base⌗
The business end of a decomissioned Saturn 5. Walking the length of this rocket takes minutes! 20 tons of fuel per minute would flow through here.
Saturn 5, second stage⌗
Command Module⌗
Apollo Guidelines⌗
A list of mission status and abort codes from the Apollo era. View full size to read it.
TODO full size
Space Shuttle Atlantis⌗
The retired Space Shuttle Atlantis. 🇺🇸 ‘Murica!
Birds!⌗
That’s the last of the space pictures, I took a few quick shots of birds outside my hotel a few days later on the same trip.
A Pelican⌗
“What you lookin’ at?”
Lucky Shot!⌗
A gull dive-bombing to catch a fish, at the moment of impact. Took quite a few trys to capture this!