Shuttle Atlantis, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Kennedy Space Center
OK, I’ll admit it – I’ve been a space geek all my life. Having grown up in the era of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and then the Space Shuttle, I guess that I may not be alone in this. The moon landing, Apollo 8’s photograph of earth from space, the huge gains in scientific knowledge that were then also accompanied by breakthroughs that changed our lives are things I think of often.
So, when Marsha and her family came to visit us while we are in Florida, it was only natural the whole family should go see the spot a lot of this took place, especially since 10-year-old Theo is also showing interest in space exploration.
Kennedy Space Center is part museum and tribute to the explorations of the past, but it is also very much a working space port. We toured the grounds and saw the giant Saturn 5 rocket that took man to the moon in the 1960s, got to stand just feet away from the shuttle Atlantis, now retired and on display for all to see, and got to see the launchpads (including a rocket set to lift off three days later) and hear about NASA’s plans for the future.
Theo declared the day to have been awesome, and that is indeed an apt descriptor. Humans reaching for the stars, quite literally, and trying to boost our collective knowledge of what lies out there and in doing so understand where we have all come from.
Awesome indeed.
