UNITED STATES: Kennedy Space Center & The Everglades

JIM KENNEDY – Former Director Kennedy Space Center

I’ve looked forward to a visit to the Kennedy Space Center for quite some time. I do love me some space hardware and the fantastic achievements that were initiated in this area since 1958. Jim Kennedy got us warmed up through his lectures aboard ship, and kept the dream of NASA’s role in space alive for all of us.

NASA – National Aeronautic Space Administration

A declaration that culminated in one of America’s finest hours.

CONTROL ROOM – The actual one used for the Moon landing. Note the three major networks back in the day when we had only that many channels.

T minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…..

four, three, two, one, zero, ignition, blast off!

Booster Rockets on the Saturn V

Second Stage

What a moment watching those three letters go by as the rocket thrusted toward the heavens.

 

The Apollo 11 Missions Patch has no astronaut names on it because NASA wanted the spirit of the mission to be for all mankind. A magnanimous gesture given the amount of work put in by so many people over the course of eight years.

Apollo 8 – Borman – Lovell – Anders – the first men to reach the moon!

The Lunar Module

Apollo 13 – NASA’s Successful Failure – The Mission Patch did not carry the names of the astronauts because the mission was not completed, but it does go down in history as the greatest rescue mission in the history of space exploration.

APOLLO 18 – Unused capsule.

Houston the Eagle has landed – They actually showed the LEM landing on this moonscape, and subsequently taking off. It was a lot of fun. By the way, all of the flags left by the Apollo missions have been beached out white by the sun.

Apollo 13 – NASA’s most successful failure – Jim Lovell’s flight suit

Alan Shepard’s Flight Suit – Apollo 14

MOON ROCK

APOLLO 14 CAPSULE

Space Shuttle Fuel Tank & Reusable Rocket Thrusters

 

The Rocket Garden

Saturn V Rocket

 

GEMINI ROCKET

 

GEMINI CAPSULE

International Space Station – Flags of 15 Nations working together in space.

Space Shuttle Atlantis – First flight 3rd. of October 1985 – 33 total flights

 

 

Cargo Bay with Canadian Arm

 

THOUSANDS OF BLACK SILICON TILES

Now it’s time to shop til’ you drop!

LEGO Mars Rover!

 

Without him, we probably would not have put a man the moon by 1969. We owe him a lot. It was so great revisiting my childhood dreams and admiration for those early astronauts. I remember vividly watching so many rocket launches while constructing models of those very spacecraft.

 

                                       THE EVERGLADES

 

Hanging out at the gator park and Everglades after the cruise to kill some time before my flight back to San Diego.

GATOR

Airboat driver on his perch.

Everglade Panorama

MORE GATOR

IBIS

GATOR SHOW – He basically just showed us the Gators. No head in gaping jaws. No feeding. Basically a bust. Waiting for my flight for six hours at the airport was more stimulating.