Cocoa Beach, Days 3-4

Friday-Saturday, 6/26-27/2015
Cocoa Beach, FL

On Friday we didn't do much except stay around the campground.  I did spend some time on the phone with the Kennedy Space Center and paid for a special tour in addition to the regular admission.  This makes it a bit on the high side to visit Kennedy but we hope it will be worth it.

Saturday morning we got up early to make our way to the Space Center.  We had a tour scheduled at 10:30 AM and needed to be there by 10:00.   We were able to park in the handicapped area so the walk in was short.  It was getting hot even at that time.  It is suppose to be in the 90's and humid again.  We got on our bus, and thankfully it was air conditioned.

There is a bus tour included with the $50 admission but it doesn't go as many places as Bill wanted so we paid an additional $25 each to take the Close-up Explore Tour.  This tour would allow us to get out of the bus at some places which you can't do with the free tour.  It was also 2 hours long.  Kennedy is much more spread out than Houston is.

While we were waiting for the tour to begin we took a walk through Rocket Park and some of the other things they have.

There is a planned rocket launch tomorrow and we were able to see some things that we normally wouldn't because of this.

Launch Pad

Vehicle Assembly Building

Open door on Vehicle Assembly Building

Camera to take pictures of launch

The tour ended in the Saturn 5 building.  Sound familiar?  It should, that is where the tours at Houston also ended.  We were surprised though, the building and display at Kennedy is much better than at Houston.

Saturn 5 Rocket

Astronaut RV

Launch Control Center

The Saturn 5 here looked bigger than the one in Houston.  Maybe because it was elevated, not sitting on a floor type place.  The building was also lighter and there was more in it.  They had a nice cafe where we had lunch.  I will say the food at Houston was better than the food at Kennedy.  Here are a few of the things we saw -

Apollo 14 Command Module

Moon Rock

1960's style space suit

Apollo 14 space suit

We had to join everyone to board a bus back to the main visitor's center.  After getting off the bus we headed over to the Atlantis building.  The space shuttle Atlantis, which flew 33 missions, is based here.  It is the only one of the 3 shuttles to be displayed with the bay doors open.  Before you see the shuttle you see two films.  The entire thing is very well done.

They had a thing called the shuttle experience.  You get to sit in seats and experience an actual shuttle launch.  They say it is very similar to what you would really experience in a launch.  You can't take a camera in so there are no pictures of it.

After we spent time in the Atlantis building we headed over to the memorial gardens.  This area is dedicated to all the astronauts who have lost their lives in training or in flight.

By the time we finished here it was after 4:00!  We still hadn't done the IMAX theater, the astronaut experience, or then and now.  But I was tired and sore so we headed out.  That leaves us with something to see if we ever come back.  I do recommend that if you are ever in the Cocoa Beach area you visit the Kennedy Space Center.

I took a lot of picture.  Enjoy.