NASA

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mainstreet1997

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Tuesday we went to Kennedy Space Center and as promised I took LOTS of pictures. ; You guys were right, Atlantis is out there on 39A and Endeavor is on 39B. ; We were lucky that we were able to go out to the observation gantry but the shuttles were covered up by the scaffolding in preparation for tomorrows launch (2:01 EST). ;

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(sorry about the hair or something - cleaned my sensor after this shot and all was well after this)


Showing the pathway where they roll the shuttles out to the launch pad
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Vehicle Assembly Building
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Next we went to the Apollo/Saturn V building where we watched a video about the birth and evolvement of the space program and then were lead into a room set up to look like Mission Control

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Then...we went into another room and saw the Saturn V rocket wish I could have gotten some better pictures of the sheer enormity of it but the boosters will give you a pretty good idea

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The rocket is separated into the different stages so that visitors can see how the different pieces separate during the flight. ;

Moon rovers
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I also spent some time taking pictures of the replicas of the different patches from the Apollo missions

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After lunch we went outside, and found out later that yes these are the bleachers that the family members of the astronauts sit on to watch the launch
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(notice the two launch pads in the distance)

Later, we went to the building where we could see workers working on equipment that will go to the International Space Station

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Later we went to check out Explorer - a model of a real shuttle complete with full size booster. ;
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Rocket Garden:
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Gemini spacecraft
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;
 
Thanks for posting. ; The Apollo rocket is also in the rocket garden. ; If my memory serves, it is the one lying down on it's side. ; It looks like the tour hasn't changed too much, I like the addition of the work area where you can see what they are working on. ; It is a cool place to go, and quite a rare site to see not one but two shuttles on the pads.
 
Excellent...thanks! ; I would like to get back over there someday soon. ; I haven't been there since I was a kid, and it didn't really sink in then as it would now.
 
Awesome shots. Thanks for sharing these. I did find that rare that there were two shuttles on the LAunch pads at the same time.
 
They are both there, because if there is a problem with the mission launching in a few minutes, they can launch the second crew to rescue or complete the mission, as I understood it.
 
I'm about 140 miles south...I don't see it break the horizon for about 25 seconds after launch...then it pops up on the horizon as a fairly bright orange fireball. ; We can just make out the boosters splitting away from down here. ; It's amazing how far you can see it - it's visible even over on the left coast down where Craig is, over here on the southeast where I am, and over in Tampa directly west of there. ; I imagine Jacksonville in the north has the same view as we do, since they are the same distance away to the north.

The only factor we have to be lucky with is weather...when it's cloudy, we don't see a thing!
 
BTW...here was the last night launch I caught from my backyard at home...to give you an idea of the size and brightness...if you look reeeaal close, you can see the boosters fall in a slightly different arc and fade out near the center of the photo, while the shuttle continues on all the way to the right and off screen as a very faint streak:

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I'd say half of the launches. ; The smaller rockets delivering satellites aren't always visible. ; Some we can see at night, but not during the day. ; It's only the bigger rockets, and of course the shuttle, which shows up pretty clearly day or night.
 
I couldnt see it today from Fort Myers. The last one we could see no problem. Sometimes we can see the booster rockets fall off.
 
I remember watching a launch while @ WDW once. We were @ MK waiting for Wishes & the shuttle lifted off over Tomorrowland. I remember thinking how cool it was that it looked like it had launched from Space Mountain. That was Awesome.
 
I haven't processed or posted the pictures from it, but I saw a rocket launch from Port Orleans this year. ; It was the Kepler launch. ; And I wasn't the only one out to see it. ; I saw someone else who was clearly out to watch it, he asked me if I was out for it when we crossed paths.

It wasn't spectacular, as such.. but it was the first rocket launch I'd ever witnessed, it was still a big deal. ; And actually fate sort of conspired against me, there was a shuttle launch scheduled for the same time period but it was delayed for technical reasons.

I've been meaning to bring this up.. Kepler is an interesting mission. ; It's designed to look for extrasolar planets similar to Earth. ; To do that it's going to look at a specific patch of sky for a very long time. ; It is looking at it with an interesting CCD array, 42 CCD panels that, added up, amount to a 92 megapixel camera.

Kind of. ; It sounds like it doesn't exactly return a 92 megapixel image, various things are done to the signal in the processing stage. ; But it's still the biggest digital camera ever flown in space. ; It kind of puts the Canon 5D mk II in perspective.
 
And on another note, did everyone see the news that Endeavour may be needed? ; (Since Atlantis had a Columbia-style incident during launch)
 
Latest word we're hearing around here is that Endeavor is just being kept prepared and on watch in case of an incident with any of the space debris up there. ; They are writing off the minor scrapes on the wing edge as non-dangerous and are mission-as-usual. ; Hopefully no space junk will mess with them. ; Much as I love watching shuttles streaking up to space from my yard, I'd rather not have a shuttle in danger to get my little show!
 
Dan, I believe that they are looking for a star wobble with that CCD array, because it will indicate that there is a planet pulling on it as it orbits the star.

As for the Shuttle, if anyone is interested, and a frequent twitter user, you can follow one of the astronauts from space. ; His user name is Astro_Mike. ; He tweets just enough to keep you up to date on what they are doing or about to do. ; About an hour ago, this came up: From orbit: Rendezvous and grapple were great, getting ready for our first spacewalk
 
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