I have to say, Kennedy was MUCH more than I expected. In fact, I want to go back again because we really didn't have time to see everything. We opted for the basic tour which includes all the exhibits at the visitor complex and a bus tour (about 2 hours) with three stops at the Gantry Observation Area, The Apollo Saturn 5 Center, and the International Space Station Center. The Space Station Center was an optional stop on the tour -- we opted out due to time.
We took the bus tour first -- to make sure we had time before closing. On the way to the Gantry Observation Area we passed the Vehicle Assembly Building.
This building is one of the largest in the world. It sits on 8 acres and contains 129,428,000 cubic feet of space.
The VAB is used to rebuild the shuttle after each launch/landing.
We visited Kennedy at a good time. They had transported the shuttle assembly from the VAB to the launch pad only days before so we got to "see" it.
This is the road to the launch pad. The shuttle is transported on this road very very slowly.
The shuttle is sitting right above the arrow sign in the photo below.
This is what they transport the shuttle assembly on the crawler.
The crawler itself is 6 million pounds. The total weight of the shuttle and crawler is 18 million pounds. Another fun fact: you can't speed on the crawler as it's maximum speed is 1 mile per hour!
More KSC tomorrow . . .
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