NASA - Kennedy Space Center

To say that my son is interested in space would be a pretty big understatement.  His current ambition (and one for the last few years) is that he wants to be an astronaut.  Not like the pipe dreams of a kindergartner, although still very real some days, but the aspirations of a kid that loves both math and science and thinks that putting those loves together in the reality of space seems like an amazing concept.

Enter a trip to the Kennedy Space Center & NASA in Cape Canaveral, FL.  And since the images were so out of this world (see what I did there) and difficult to keep short, I'll try to make up for it by keeping my words short.

I loved that wall; it is such a picture of our journey into space.  And below?  That's the entrance.  Tell me how cool these 2 things are?  And we're not even IN yet!

 The standing rockets are a "Rocket Garden".  Above is the "crawler" that walks the shuttle & launch pad from their building site to their launching site.  It moves at a brisk 2 miles per hour without a shuttle/launch pad; 1 mile per hour with.  Below, the original site where our mission to the moon took place.

 Above, you can see some of the Apollo mission patches that are located through out one of the  buildings on site.  They run along side the original Saturn V rocket, which launched our mission of Apollo 11 to the moon.  It is unfathomable in size (363 feet).

 Something amazing is the real life reenactments you can sit thought of space missions in US history.  It's UNBELIEVABLY cool as you get to listen to the mission live and watch different parts of it silently move on and off the stage as if happening right then and there.

Along with getting to see some awesome artifacts, we got to meet a for REAL astronaut, Sam Gemar.  Aaron got to get his autograph on one of his mission patches and his mom (who likes to take pictures) got the crazy honor of taking their picture together.  It was amazing.  (Side note: check out that shirt.  My son says it wasn't planned - that's pretty cool.)

 So, another cool reenactment was the launch and return trip of Atlantis.   The MOST amazing part was that you got to watch the launch through a FULL surround (on the walls and ceiling) theater.  This did NOT photograph well, as the colors, screens, and projectors separated, but it was still worth sharing.  Imagine though, that shuttle flying towards you and then a screen lifting and the ACTUAL shuttle being on the other side of the screen at the exact same angle.  It still gives me goosebumps.

 As you can see, Atlantis is enormous.  Larger than life.  Above is the nose, below, the back and interior.  I mean, it's just fantastic.

 That's a satellite tunnel that kids can play in.  Way awesome.  And that same Rocket Garden below, lit up for the holidays and at night.

And because that wall wasn't awesome enough as we entered, the colors and lights at night were definitely an awesome cap off to an amazing day.  I sure hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,