This was my first full day in Florida after surrendering the previous day to travel. And this is what I'm down here for:
This is the first in a series of pictures I took from a four-story observation facility built for the Kennedy Space Center visitor's tour. The Vehicle Assembly Building is in the background, with a "crawler-transporter" parked in the foreground. The observation facility is between the two shuttle pads, although it is closer to the currently empty Launch Pad 39A, as seen below:
than to Launch Pad 39B below, which was where the shuttle Discovery was waiting to liftoff:
That was part of the first stop of the tour. The other stop I went to was the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which has a moon rocket that was never flown. Below is a shot of the first stage:
Below is a picture of a lunar lander that was never flown:
All this and I didn't see everything...
Two things these pictures don't do justice to are the weather and the insects. (There's a relationship, there.) It's, uh, muggy here. And it's swarming with mosquitoes and "love bugs" -- which look to me like horny gnats. The love bugs, which I'm told are new to the area and only seem to swarm in May and November, are curiosities (and windshield lubricant).
The mosquitoes are the blood suckers we all know. But these are minor inconveniences -- more entertainment than a nuisance; it was funny sight as the tour bus would pull up to a stop to see other "tour-goers" madly swatting themselves. And all the blood stains!
Last Revised: 13 June 1999
Complaints: blupwa@lupwa.org