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Florida's Space Coast Is A Blast
Space Coast, the catchy name for a region covering 70 miles of Atlantic shoreline in Brevard County from Melbourne to Titusville, including Cape Canaveral and Coco Beach, is home to much more than rockets and flight suits. A great ecologically-friendly zoo, beautiful beaches, a busy cruise ship port, and unique sea turtle nesting grounds appeal to all types of vacation planners. But no doubt about it: Kennedy Space Center is the main attraction. I highly recommend three days here to wishful space travelers young and old who dream of the stars.
Lost In Space
Since 1967, when the visitor center was built as a launch viewing site for astronauts' families, folks have been coming to central Florida to get a glimpse of the American space program. When recent improvements and expansions were completed, Kennedy Space Center (321/449-4444) took shape as a top-notch museum, which also happens to serve as an active launch facility.
From the Observation Gantry, visitors get a great view of the two Space Shuttle launch pads and a panoramic glimpse of the entire complex, including the awesome Vehicle Assembly Building (the largest building by volume in the world), where the Shuttles are maintained and assembled before launch. With the frequency of flights these days, chances are that a Shuttle will be on one of the pads, or on its way out to them, standing upright on a giant crawler which rolls along a huge gravel path right next to the road.
Just down that road at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, small-scale displays, multimedia presentations, and a huge Saturn moon rocket that was built (but never launched) are part of an exhibit devoted to the Apollo lunar landing program. A glimpse of such a large rocket, displayed on its side, is quite stunning. One can only imagine what it must have been like to sit atop it in a cramped capsule as the whole thing exploded upwards with the force of, well, a rocket!
At the Apollo Center, visitors are initially led into a room designed to look like a circa-1979 launch control room. A countdown ensues, lights flash, and a huge rumble is heard and felt from beyond the back wall. Kids will love it; to adults, the whole re-creation may seem a little corny, until one realizes that the room is not a re-creation at all, it is indeed the actual Apollo control room, where moon launches were planned and directed 40 years ago.
Look Behind the Scenes
From an observation deck enclosed with thick glass at the the International Space Station Complex, visitors are able to look down upon the happenings of a real NASA laboratory where components of the International Space Station are assembled and prepared for orbit. On the day I visited, a utility compartment full of spare parts and astronaut garbage that had just returned from space was being emptied. Rocket scientists, draped in white coats and sterile hairnets, scurried to and fro -- lots of brainpower down on that floor.
At the main visitor's center, a number of exhibits, an IMAX film, a full-scale Shuttle replica, a huge "rocket garden," a gift shop, and several casual dining options can be found. The ticket booth is also the stop for shuttle busses which transport visitors around the complex.
Those interested in an even closer look can join up-close-and-personal, added-price tours of the complex: one buses visitors to within feet of the Shuttle launch pads, another ventures out to various rocket launch facilities for a glimpse of NASA's rich history. But the best time to see the Space Center is on a launch day-- Shuttle launch schedules and viewing information is available on the website.
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