I’m not sure why, but Ben and I have been into space lately. Strange (for us) but I’m totally getting into it. We started watching “For All Mankind”, which is a very interesting show and got us looking up facts about the space race.
Fast forward a couple months and we found ourselves in Florida. Our plan was to only visit the theme parks for a few days, but then we remembered that the Kennedy Space Center wasn’t too far away. With our recent peaked interest in space, we had to visit. And let me tell you we were not disappointed. We could have easily spent a couple days exploring all of the exhibits and attending all of the presentations scheduled throughout the day.
Shortly after we arrived there was a scheduled presentation by an astronaut. The astronaut for the day happened to be one of the first female astronauts, which was interesting for us because that’s a part of the storyline in the show “For All Mankind”.
Anyway, her presentation was fantastic. It was very interesting hearing her experiences in the training program and her travels into space.
After her presentation was sat through a different speaker providing some information on the Hubble Space Telescope and the new James Webb Space Telescope. Again, another great presentation.
There were several other presentations that I wish we could have attended, but we wanted to make sure we were able to see the Atlantis Shuttle and the Apollo/Saturn V Center before closing time.
In the Atlantis Pavilion you start your visit by watching a couple video presentations about the program. After the videos you are then taken into the exhibit area, where the Atlantis Shuttle is on display. It’s a great entrance with the massive shuttle hanging straight in front of you. It’s such an impressive sight. The shuttle is displayed exactly as it was after it’s last mission. You can see the various marks on the outside of the shuttle from travel and the engines.
There’s lot of information available as you admire the shuttle. Downstairs there are several interactive displays, including a shuttle launch experience where you get to feel like you are blasting off into space. Again, I wish we would have had more time to explore the exhibit and interactions.
To visit the Apollo/Saturn V Center you had to schedule a bus (offered throughout the day and included in your admission ticket) that would take you on a tour of the facilities on the way to the exhibit center. At the Apollo/Saturn V Center you got to see the Firing Room as it was during the Apollo program. You get to experience the launch of Apollo 8 while sitting in from of the actual consoles used during the launch.
After the Firing Room experience you enter the main exhibit area where you see the massive Saturn V Rocket hanging overhead. Around the room there are lots of informative exhibits about the Apollo missions and everyone involved in getting American astronauts to the moon. One of the rooms off the main area is the Treasure Gallery. The gallery displays a number of medals, prototypes, and training gear used for the missions.
Next time we are in the area, we will definitely be returning to spend more time at the Kennedy Space Center. It was a fantastic and very interesting day spent learning about NASA and the space program.