Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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I know there's a few other spacegeeks on CS so maybe somebody will find this of interest!
My Girlfriend and I just got back from two weeks in Florida, did the usual themepark tours and ate lots - but one of the highlights for me was the Kennedy Space Center on the Atlantic coast.
Since the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is currently between the last of the Shuttle work and the start of the Boeing/Space-X work it's available to public access if you book the KSC "up-close" tour which I booked and paid for a few months before we travelled.
Our tour group was about 15 people, and we all got loaded onto a Kennedy bus at 10am:
The bus had TV screens on it which displayed videos as we drove around the site just to kill time on the boring parts of the journey (it's a very sprawled out site as you can probably imagine!)
The driver and tourguide were very knowledgable and they had no issues handling some of the more hardcore questions from some of the uber geeks which were on the tour 
The tour lasted two hours and basically took us around the two launch pads which have been used since the 60's and also around the various grandstand viewing areas, vehicle storage areas and of course the VAB.
This is one of the grandstands, the seats of which are distributed by a lottery which costs $60 to enter. I dread to think what the odds were back in the late 60's and early 70's.
This is the VAB from a distance
VAB from another angle
If I remember correctly, it's the largest painted American flag in existence. The stripes are 9feet across and the stars are 6feet point to point.
I thought these buildings were cool, these were the shuttle parking garages whilst shuttle operations were live. The tour guide told us that this one pictured was being moved into by an unknown contractor. Rumours around the NASA staff were either Boeing or the USAF but nobody outside of the NASA/Goverment big hitters knew who was going in.
VAB up close:
Inside:
It was impossible to do the size of this building justice with the camera and my photography skills. The thing you can see in the bottom right of the shot is a mockup of the crew capsule in development by Space-X (I think it's called the Dragon?) and has been used in live tests of the mission abort hardware. (basically a little rocket which launches the crew capsule away from the massive rocket on the launchpad in event of a failure).
The tourguide then smugly walked us round the corner so we bumped into the crown jewel of the tour. Until early next year, the only way to see a Shuttle at KSC is to do this tour. Once the VAB closes again the Shuttle will be moved to a public viewing area and propped up on an angle so you can see inside the loading bay etc.
I got a few goosebumps being so close to it, it looked so knackered and beat up - so cool to see it like this before it all gets polished up and turned into a proper museum exhibit.
One of the ceramic tiles, weighed hardly anything at all despite being several inches thick:
They had a woman answering questions there who worked on the Shuttle project for years; she was a computer programmer on the project which was a good opportunity for me to ask some really geeky questions but I just stood there and stared at Atlantis for 15mins instead.
Back on the bus and this was a photo of the mobile launch platform:
The "crawler" units would roll under this and then lift it a few inches so the legs could be removed, and then it could be carried from the launch pad.
Closest pad to the VAB was 3.5 miles If I remember right, and it took 8hours to get the Shuttle from A to B!
The gravel tracks you can see at the bottom of this photo are the roads used by the crawlers. Each one was at least 2m wide and you could see the tank-track imprints in the gravel
I'm ashamed to say I forgot which launch pad was which, but one was all rigged up with the NASA gear for launching their current unmanned program:
The other one was a "clean" pad which will be used by Boeing/Space-X/whoever else so they'll need to bring their own gear onto it. Those big posts are lightening rods.
This little guy was camping out for the next launch I think, his hole was under one of the grandstands:
This was the actual launch control room and they had a pretty good setup where they replicated the Apollo 8 launch and all the little computer screens and TV's displayed what they would have done during the launch.
This part was almost as good as seeing Atlantis, this was a Saturn V rocket laid down in a room... a big room
Again, impossible to do justice in the photographs...
Bus which took the Apollo astronauts to the launch pad:
This guy was keeping an eye on us on the drive out 
Photobucket is playing up, got a few more pictures but it keeps timing out and crashing my album so I'll have a look tomorrow.
After the tour, we looked around all the exhibits and stuff and also watched an ISS short movie in their 3D IMAX cinema which was pretty good.
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leon.
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Registered: 24th Jun 08
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Can drive a bus down each stripe on the USA flag iirc
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Not sure if all the pics are failing for everbody, but just keep refreshing and they eventually appear.
Photobucket really struggling I think!
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Hammer
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Registered: 11th Feb 04
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Didn't give a shit about space and space travel until I visited Kennedy Space Centre. The place is incredible.
Buzz Aldrin was there answering questions when I was there a couple of years ago. Like you I got goosebumps a couple of times, it really does warp your brain.
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VegasPhil
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Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
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Very good thread. 
It's so cool to see the pics. Jealous as fuck!
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richc
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Registered: 24th Mar 07
Location: Ilkeston
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Where abouts was this? I never knew florida had stuff like this. I would of gone 
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Rob E
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Registered: 1st Jan 06
Location: Madeley, Stafford....I want to live back in Wales!
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That looks like an amazing tour  Thanks for sharing. Atlantis almost looks like a barn find in that state! Are they going to let the public in the cockpit etc when it goes on show?
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Gary
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Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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Wouldn't let us off the coach when we went due to pending thunderstorm.
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j10E W
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Registered: 30th Sep 04
Location: maidstone
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that looks the bollocks
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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We went there when I was a lot younger, about 12-13 I think, I can't remember anything apart from standing outside the IMAX screen and then sitting in it - it's the one that covers most of the ceiling too, in a curved shape - right?
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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This brings back memories from when I was in my early teens. Most exciting day of the holiday for me. Would like to go back some time and experience it as an adult.
[Edited on 30-07-2012 by C2RL R]
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Wrighty
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Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
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fonz this looks mega, what else you get upto over there?
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IvIarkgraham
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Registered: 27th Mar 04
Location: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
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it was fucking wank when i went
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taylorboosh
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Registered: 3rd Apr 07
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Why the fuck didn't you get a pic of the white corvette you man
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Ben J
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Registered: 31st Jan 05
Location: Cheshire
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I went about 6 years ago. Loved it. There was a launch happening a few weeks later and the shuttle etc was on the launch pad.
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Jamie Walby
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Registered: 15th Nov 04
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I love the Space centre when I went couple of years back. Saw a turtle when I was there too
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Daniel_Corsa
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Registered: 21st Apr 04
Location: Wigton, Cumbria
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quote:
Originally posted by leon.
Can drive a bus down each stripe on the USA flag iirc
Correct 
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Matt L
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Registered: 17th Apr 06
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Awesome, Iv been a few times but was years ago so never got to go into the vab area.
Got to see atlantis launch on one of its last few trips, was an awesome day tbh.
[Edited on 31-07-2012 by Matt L]
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Nath
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Registered: 3rd Apr 02
Location: MK
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quote:
Originally posted by IvIarkgraham
it was fucking wank when i went
You are a retard though tbf.
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nathy_87
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Registered: 14th Aug 08
Location: West Mids. Drives: Škoda Fabia VRS 5J
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quote:
Originally posted by Nath
quote:
Originally posted by IvIarkgraham
it was fucking wank when i went
You are a retard though tbf.
That looks impressive.
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Nath
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Registered: 3rd Apr 02
Location: MK
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It is impressive. It is absolutely mega. Loved it when I went.
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Hammer
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Registered: 11th Feb 04
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quote:
Originally posted by Nath
quote:
Originally posted by IvIarkgraham
it was fucking wank when i went
You are a retard though tbf.
Too many words, not enough pictures.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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quote:
Originally posted by Matt L
Awesome, Iv been a few times but was years ago so never got to go into the vab area.
Got to see atlantis launch on one of its last few trips, was an awesome day tbh.
[Edited on 31-07-2012 by Matt L]
That's an awesome photo.
I went years ago as a wee kid and we saw a shuttle launch but unfortunately I can't remember it. We'd done Florida a couple of times in my teens but never returned to KSC as the other families we travelled with weren't too interested.
This time round it was MY trip so I made sure we went back, and it really was a good day out but I can see how it's not everybody's thing.
quote:
Originally posted by Wrighty
fonz this looks mega, what else you get upto over there?
Hired a Mustang convertible, horrible thing to drive (although I think I'm just "doing it wrong" when it comes to automatics). Put my foot down and it just spends 15 seconds hopping about through gears before finally flooring it, and the steering feels more like the houseboat I took on the Norfolk Broads a couple of years ago. Got back to my Civic after the holiday and I thought my power steering had died it was so heavy in comparison
We did the four Disney themeparks, never too old for them - they're awesome. One of the Disney parks has a car stunt show and they had Hyabusa engined Corsa C's with french plates bombing around doing jumps n' shit I'll post some pictures tonight.
Did SeaWorld and Busch Gardens themeparks, it was my first time to Busch Gardens as it's quite a trek outside of Orlando but it's an awesome day for rollercoaster lovers - I think we did 6 or 7 and three water ride log flume thingies. Sea World was interesting as we did (another) behind the scenes type tour and got to stroke a penguin (  ) and some other stuff.
Went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, good as ever - missus loved the new Harry Potter area of IoA, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it a little bit cool
Really good holiday, never sat still and come home more knackered than when I left but it's all part of the fun!
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Nath
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Registered: 3rd Apr 02
Location: MK
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quote:
Originally posted by Hammer
quote:
Originally posted by Nath
quote:
Originally posted by IvIarkgraham
it was fucking wank when i went
You are a retard though tbf.
Too many words, not enough pictures.
'Mummy why isnt the big space ship going vrooooooooom into the clouds yet?'
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Hammer
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Registered: 11th Feb 04
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