One Lap

Date: 11/03/2013

Day: 38

Location: , Miami, FL

Miles Today: 325

Total Miles:  8588

Driving South, Kennedy Space Flight Center, Seen on the Road

Driving South

Another beautiful day, edging a bit into the humid.

 

Kennedy Space Flight Center

This is the Colonels third visit to the KSFC,  which around here does not refer to chicken.  It is certainly an iconic American place, although at least half of the folks there today were visitors from abroad.  Your reaction to the KSFC will depend on how you relate to technology.  This or that gadget may be a step forward toward the future of humanity, but each gadget does have a significant alternative cost.  How much in human services left undone was the cost of the Saturn 5?  Mr. Kennedy said we would go to the moon because it was hard "and do the other things."  That can't be true -- government budgets are zero sum, a choice made is a choice forgone.  Not unlike routing decisions on the One lap.

The Colonel is a technophile.  He is  touched down to his boot leather by what is on display here.

 

 The KSFC changes if you only see it once a decade.  The physical plant is different now that the shuttle support hardware is largely gone.  The missile garden below is closer to the visitors center.  And the shuttle Atlantis is magnificently on display.

If you have not been here, you should add it to the list, however you feel about the NASA budget.  At least unlike the military (which spends a lot more money) they are not about killing people and destroying  things.  Bring your money belt.  It is $10 to park and $50 to walk through the door.  Kids under 3 get in free.

 

 

 These are nonmilitary missiles, or military missiles used to move things other than warheads.  The two on the left and below, a Redstone and an Atlas, flew Shepherd and Glen.  (The Atlas is the shiny one.) On the far right is the Delta rocket which was the Gemini launcher.

 

 

 

 A mural illustration of the Space Station.

This is sad, perhaps.  It is one of the two launch sites for the shuttle.  Almost all the metal bits of the launch tower are gone.  The towers you see are lightning rods and will remain.  Not quite visible to the right is the water tower, which will also remain in place.  In the future the new NASA rocket, the Space Launch System, will depart from here.  The SLS will eventually be able to life 130 tons to orbit, making it a more powerful lifter than even the Saturn 5.  The crew will ride in a new vehicle, called the Orion. 

 

Above and below is the famous Vertical Assembly Building.  Built for the Saturn 5 moon rocket 40 years ago, it was later used, as you know, for the shuttle and it will be used for the SLS.  The 363 foot tall Saturn 5 came within 6 feet of the top of those vertical doors.

 

Yes it is huge.  The stars on the flag are famously 6 feet across.

 

Those two buildings, and a third hidden behind them wee used to refurbish the Shuttles when they came back from space.

 

The tower centered in the image above and to the left below will be used to launch the SLS rocket in a couple years.  If you look very closely around its base, you will see the crawler transporter that will take the SLs to the launch pad, another moon rocket left over.

 

 

This is the room from which they controlled the launch of the Moon rockets.  KSFC does a good theatrical job building the audience up emotionally for the moment of launch, to include shaking the floor as the rocket takes off.  Then ...

 

You walk through some doors, turn left and you are looking at this; the business end of the Saturn 5 Moon rocket.  The Colonel has done this three times and it leaves him speechless each time.  The scale here is difficult to convey  It. Is. Big.  The bottom end of the Saturn 5 is 33 feet across.  Each of those nozzles is 12 feet across.  It was, as mentioned 363 feet tall and the whole thing weighed 6.2 million pounds.  And it went straight up and was moving 5000 miles an hour before the first stage dropped off.

This is an American cathedral.  400,000 people worked on some part of the moon rocket.  Vast treasure was spent.  It was expended for no dollar and cents tangible gain.  It is Chartres.  Not sublimely beautiful, to be sure, but the motive for its creation is drawn form the same place.

 

 

The display of the Space Shuttle Atlantis is now open and completely new to the Colonel.  Outside is the pair of solid rocket boosters and the disposable fuel tank that would have been attached to it.

 

 

There is another good theatrical presentation of the launch process, then the curtain goes up and you are looking at the nose of the Atlantis.

 

 

It looks like it has been to space and back 33 times.  The surface abound the cockpit windows looks like it could have been made of Bondo or some other plasticy substance.

 

A reusable rocket engine.  One of the major challenges of the shuttle program.

Once again, the scale is very hard to convey, especially when looking up at the bottom of the vehicle. 

 

Seen on the Road

Ok, not on the road, exactly, but the soap and shampoo cache continues to grow.

The Colonel is a bit proud of this shot, taken through the driver side window at just a bit shy of 80 MPH.   (Don't try this at home, kiddies.)  The speed limit on the Ronald Regan Thruway is 70.  At 80 you regularly have your doors blown off by New Yorkers hurrying to escape the oncoming winter.  The average speed on the road must be 85, with motor homes pulling SUVs going almost that fast.

So are there hills in Florida?

 

Well, no.  Here and at a number of other points, there are 200 foot high, 1000 foot long grassed over piles of Florida's refuse.  This particular one was burning a bit, spoiling the bucolic image.

 

Tomorrow:  Key West (and some non-technophile images to share.)

Wellington Boot, Col