
On Tuesday, I rented a car, and drove to the Kennedy Space Center visitor's complex on the Atlantic coast (near Cocoa Beach).
If you've never gone, DO SO! It's well worth the price of admission ($50 for me. They do charge, because it's not government funded. There are rates one can discover by going to their webpage).
Anyway, one of the stops was the Atlantis Experience.
This is the REAL Space Shuttle Atlantis! It's flipping HUGE! About the length of a Southwest Airline plane (just with shorter wings).
It's an impressive site, because until someone who's never worked around it actually stands next to it, you don't have any idea how big it is.
Former workers, who serviced, or provided ground control, or logistical support during the Shuttle program tend to be docents. So, if you go, seek them out, and ask questions!
If you've never gone, DO SO! It's well worth the price of admission ($50 for me. They do charge, because it's not government funded. There are rates one can discover by going to their webpage).
Anyway, one of the stops was the Atlantis Experience.
This is the REAL Space Shuttle Atlantis! It's flipping HUGE! About the length of a Southwest Airline plane (just with shorter wings).
It's an impressive site, because until someone who's never worked around it actually stands next to it, you don't have any idea how big it is.
Former workers, who serviced, or provided ground control, or logistical support during the Shuttle program tend to be docents. So, if you go, seek them out, and ask questions!
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ahh Atlantis... Still, nothing quite beats the IMAX footage they got of Discovery -on flight- utilizing her robotic arm to do a 'fly around' shot. They had a satellite which was to study the long-term exposure to orbit of various pieces of material, prospective spacecraft externals, I think. Well, they put an IMAX camera on the thing too. So before release, they did this gorgeous fly-around footage, showing exactly how pock-marked and space-worn Discovery really was. And in closing, they released the satellite, and when it was a little ways away from the orbiter, they turned the IMAX camera back on, and just let it run out the rest of its film (running into an internal shielded vault, for retrieval later). That footage, of the orbiter pulling ever further away is breathtaking, because together, orbiter and satellite (as they continue to drift further apart) pass around to the shadow of earth. Leaving the last thing the camera recorded being the cargo bay lights of Discovery, slowly drifting further away.
It is an exhibit I can take pride in: http://michel-mephit.livejournal.com/100865.html
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