Kennedy Space Center

Last week I finally got my NASA badge, which means I can go into the restricted areas on the refuge and over by all the NASA buildings!

So, on the way back from the badging station, Candice (the acting refuge manager) and I went on a little drive around the Kennedy Space Center and took some pictures. She’s been on the KSC tour so many times she could tell me all about everything, my own personal tour guide.

The Vehicle Assembly Building. Each stripe on the flag is wide enough for a tour bus to drive on without touching another stripe.

The Vehicle Assembly Building, with the display shuttle in front.

Not an actual shuttle. This is the model that was inside. It has been moved outside because they’re putting one of the actual shuttles on display.

Closeup of the shuttle replica.

NASA News!

The countdown clock.

Note the large rectangular door on the side, one way to tell this isn’t a real shuttle.

The long gravel path is how the shuttles are moved from the VAB to the launching site. They are transported on a vehicle called a Crawler, and it takes something like 8 hours to move the shuttle.

Where the shuttles are launched.

The Beach House, where the astronauts spend the night with their families before they are blasted up into space.

View from the Beach House.

The Crawler– how the shuttle is transported from the VAB to the launching platform.

Not sure what the purpose of this structure is.

So we had to get out and walk underneath it.

This is 1 side 2. Whatever that means.

One of the perks of living on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is that NASA shoots up rockets in your backyard. Tonight I went out and watched the launching of the Atlas V Mobile User Objective System 1 satellite. The MUOS 1 is a military satellite, which will “improve ground communications for U.S. forces on the move” ( from the Kennedy Space Center website).

It’s a pretty spectacular sight, and I managed to get a video. I apologize for the shakiness, I’m not very good at holding still.

Atlas V MUOS1 rocket launch

If you listen closely you can hear the countdown on the radio. There is an AM station that follows the launches and talks directly to the Air Force and NASA people involved with the launch. It’s very interesting to hear what they do to prepare, and to know what’s going on, especially if there is a weather delay, as there was last time I went to watch a launch.

The large building is the Vehicle Assembly Building of the Kennedy Space Center.

Here are some pictures before and after the launch