How to Reach Kennedy Space Center

The Kennedy Space is located at Florida’s Atlantic Coast right in the middle between Jacksonville and Miami. From Orlando, going to the Kennedy Space Center is easy: it only takes an hour to drive (85 km); from Miami it’s a longer drive. The closest towns are Daytona Beach and Cocoa Beach.

I’m usually not a big fan of theme parks, amusements parks and everything around it. I was not interested in seeing Disneyland for example. Kennedy Space Center is different. It’s not primarily about entertainment; they try to tell the history of space travel. This is the dominating motto in the park; everything else is arranged accordingly. The park has lots of interesting information about space travel in general.

Kennedy Space Center refers to a larger area, where some parts are restricted. NASA has their spaceport there, Cape Canaveral is right next to it. This is where all the rocket launches are operated. Larger areas on the island are uninhabited a make and important nature protection area.

Visitor Center Rocket Garden and Bus Tour

Parking is available right in front of the visitor center, even though a fine has to be paid. Finding a parking spot is, in the US, usually easy and not a big problem. A day pass gives you entrance to the Rocket Garden. Several old, discharged rockets and space technique can be seen here. Simply seeing how enormously large the rockets are is something special. The sheer size of the rockets only becomes visible when you walk around these rockets. Also there is a launch capsule. Sitting in it is funny in particular for taller men who can barely squeeze themselves into it.

The rocket garden is where the bus tour starts. It is not possible to take your own car; you need to do the bus tour. The bus stops several times on its route. There are smaller and larger attractions. At the larger ones, you can stay as long as you want und just take the next bus. The system is quite simple and runs smoothly.

Several things can be seen on the bus tour: the bus passes along a large building – the vehicle assembly building. This is where the rockets are indeed built and assembled. You also get to see a couple of launch pads and the engine of the first moon mission.

The next larger stop is an exhibit about the Apollo Program. Here, they tell all kinds of stories about the Apollo Program and its astronauts. Also, several rockets, space suits, equipment and a moon stone are shown. Highlight at this stop is the Saturn V, the biggest rocket that ever flew in space. At the entrance hall, the rocket hangs horizontally in about 5 meters high. You can walk along its body and watch it from an unusual perspective. A second larger stop is about the Space Shuttle Program.

You also get to see the launch center of the Apollo Mission; it looks just exactly how you know it from TV. A 4-D-Cinema imitates how a rocket starts, including special effects. This is all nicely done, even though a bit kitschy and cheesy, typically American.

You pass along the launch pad several times. Launch pad sounds a bit like its nothing. Anyways, these pads are completely the opposite. A launch pad is a highly complex piece of engineering with loads of single elements and technical equipment.

After about 3 hours, you reach the Rocket Garden again. Here, there is the astronaut encounter: a Q&A with an astronaut and an IMAX 3-D cinema. When I was there, they showed a movie about the Hubble Telescope. Now it’s a movie about the Mars Mission.

Special tour: Vehicle Assembly Building

In addition to the regular tour, there are many special tours available. We didn’t exactly plan to do a second tour but there was a rocket launch three days later and we decided to definitely come back for that.

A report about that rocket launch can be found here.

We did the special tour about the Vehicle Assembly Building on our second day. You have to pay for the regular one day entrance and the special tour. It was expensive but worth it! This time, we did not pass by the huge building but were allowed to enter it. The building itself can be described in only two word: incredibly huge. It is the largest building with only one storey. At the center is a huge, empty room where rockets are made. On every side are stairs and entrances. You can easily imagine how they assemble their rockets here. Anyways, you don’t get to see a lot in the building. The tour group is lead into the building for something like 50 meters, you need to stay behind ropes and marks.

A lady who works there or worked there, told the group many interesting facts about how they build things, which materials they used, what kind of problems they had and what they did to fix these problems. To me, it seemed like the lady really enjoyed talking about everything and that she could have continued for ages. Anyways, she was interrupted a bit harshly by our tour guide and we almost had to run to the bus because the next tour group was already waiting.

Is Kennedy Space Center worth a visit?

Definitely Yes! I have to say, I’m not a space travel enthusiast, nor am I particularly interested in engineering or a big fan of NASA, aviation or the space. That is why I wasn’t really sure if the Kennedy Space Center is right for me and worth paying that expensive entrance fee. Also, I didn’t know if two days is too much time there (the rocket launch was in the evening, we spent an entire second day at the KSC).

The Kennedy Space Center offers many attractions: a mix of facts and technical knowledge in their exhibits, entertaining presentations, original locations and old space technique. All of this is shown on the regular bus tour. Also, these several special tours are interesting and offer new aspects and ideas. The bus tour is funny and interesting you can learn more about space travel but never get bored. American kitsch and cheesiness is also there, as well as American pathos. Both is always present in the background. But I didn’t mind, it was ok. Of course you are taken to the gift shop, mandatory everywhere in the US. The restaurants are ok and not overpriced.

All bus drivers and tour guides are some kind of entertainers. I met several older gents, veterans; who clearly enjoyed their job and could totally crack up the entire bus. Telling jokes during the bus ride is part of it, yet the jokes weren’t even bad. Everyone was very helpful and all questions were answered friendly and in detail. You can easily spend a whole day here. I would highly recommend visiting the Kennedy Space Center.

Fun Fact: Manatees in the Nature Protected Area

According to Wikipedia, only 9% of the island is habitated, everything else is protected area where many animals find a place to live. All busses drive along standard routes, expect that traffic is weak, only a few employees. Fun fact: we did get to see a manatee. The manatee was swimming in one of the channels while we were driving past it in the bus. The tour guide said this happens regularly. In the Everglades, I wasn’t lucky enough to see a manatee but here in the KSC I got to see one.

Der Beitrag The Kennedy Space Center erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.

Space X Falcon 9

Space X was responsible for the rocket launch we saw. Space X is a private aerospace company, founded by Elon Musk (Paypal, Tesla). In the long run, the company wants to settle mars. In this case, a rocket was sent to supply the ISS.

While we were just visiting Kennedy Space Center, we have accidentally discovered that a rocket launch was about to happen soon. The rockets launch was scheduled to take place 3 days later. We definitely wanted to see that and decided to come back to the Kennedy Space Center from Orlando. The rocket was to take off at 8 pm (anywhere outside the US this is called 20 o’clock). Of course, I got it wrong the first time and thought the rockets launch was in the morning. Even though, I know that pm means evening, I still made that mistake.

Rockets launches can also be seen from outside the Kennedy Space Center, at the beaches of the Space Coast (that means all beaches south of Cape Canaveral that are open to public). Like that you do not need to pay. I dunno how well you really see. We didn’t do it; we went to the Kennedy Space Center.

Another Day in the Kennedy Space Center

We were not expecting to spend another day in the Kennedy Space Center but that is how it happened. Watching the rockets launch requires to pay the regular one day ticket. For us that meant, we could have done the same program again, anyways we decided to pay some extra money for one of the special tours. Even the rockets launch required and extra ticket. I cannot recall how much it was but it wasn’t expensive. I think it was something like 20 Dollar but I’m not sure. Since we already had a day ticket (from 3 days before) that ticket was changed to an annual pass for just 5 more bucks. That was really nice and made things a lot cheaper. We did not need to pay for parking anymore (it’s included in the annual pass) and could also visit the Astronaut Hall of Fame for free (also included). If this had been possible in Germany, I strongly doubt it. “You have already purchased a daily pass, I cannot change it to an annual pass.” Something like that would have been the answer in Germany. In the US, customer service is much more important, people are more friendly and helpful.

An article about our first day at Kennedy Space Center can be found here.

Rocket launch: Space X Falcon 9

Busses took all visitors to a field. There are also bleachers but when we came, all the seats were already taken. We had taken the last bus and watched a movie about the ISS in the IMAX Cinema to kill time before that. 20 busses are available to reach the field. To keep a kind of organized system, we were asked to return to the same bus for the way back. “Only come back to exactly this bus and no other, only bus number 5.” Because all the busses look the same, it’s really easy to get into the wrong one.

Finally, everyone is on the field and the bleacher. The ocean is only a few steps from the field. Right now, it’s time to wait and see. The rocket is already forms a layer of smoke and fumes and looks ready to start. The rocket and the launch pad are on a small island and can be seen in distance on the other side of the water. How far that really was, is difficult to say but we could see the rocket and the launch pad perfectly.

Of course, there is a countdown. At zero, the rocket is released. A giant explosion is taking place, the earth is shaking and all of a sudden it is extremely light and bright. The rocket rises slowly but steadily to the sky, straight upwards. When the rocket reaches a certain height, it appears to be as bright as a second moon. At some point the rocket gets out of sight. As long as the rocket is visible, all visitors are totally banned by the rockets and cannot look anywhere else. All the power that is needed for the rockets launch can literally be felt. All in all this experience blew off my mind.

You can see on the picture how light everything had become because of the rocket. All of pics are taken without flash or artificial light. Even though, light came from far away, it still gave me enough light for my pics.

Driving back to the Kennedy Space Center

Everyone gets up at the same time and walks around, a bit confusing to everyone. Now, it’s clear why everyone needs to go back to “his/her” bus. Because we had taken the last bus, it was waiting at the very end of the line and it took as a while to walk there. On the way to the start, every single seat in the bus was taken, now two seats were empty. The driver was totally confused about that and wanted to make sure we had not forgotten anyone. His advice was to return to our original seats to make sure this does not happen. Of course, that did not work. When I came to the bus, my seat was already taken. Two people in the bus said they were sitting in the now-empty seats but are now somewhere else in the bus. Now, the driver was even more confused. “This would not have happened if everyone had returned to their seats.” After waiting for a while, the driver finally took off and left. The field was entirely empty, no one there anymore. These two people must have disappeared, gotten into another bus or were never there.

Our bus then reached the final station at the visitor center. We were supposed to get off last because we were the last bus. The driver didn’t care at all; he just took over all other busses and opened the doors. The Kennedy Space Center itself was closed; everyone just walks to the exit and leaves.

Watching a Rocket Launch in Your Holidays?

The rockets launch was an absolutely unique experience, something totally unexpected and new. The driver did a lot of talking on the way to the launch. He said things like “an earthquake”, “a giant explosion”. To be honest, I thought he was exaggerating. I thought, that’s an American thing, they are always enthusiastic about everything and tend to exaggerate things (everything is always the best and the greatest). In this case, I was wrong. He was right and wasn’t exaggerating at all. The Earth shivered, a gigantic explosion happened. An extraordinary experience I am so glad we came back for that launch.

The Website provides information about rocket launches. But that’s a bit tricky, three days before the launch, when we bought our tickets, they still claimed plans can changed due to weather or technical problems and that launch date is never guaranteed. Dates can be pushed on very short notice. Being lucky is necessary to make something like that work in your holidays. But if you are lucky enough, it is something totally unique. I would always recommend taking that risk and buy tickets even though you don’t know for sure.

The Kennedy Space Center publishes information about rocket launches on its website: http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com

Also the Website of the Space Coast, the beaches near Kennedy Space Center, has information about rocket launches: http://www.visitspacecoast.com/

Der Beitrag Space X Falcon 9: Rocket Launch at Cape Canaveral erschien zuerst auf travelspotting.