As mentioned in the last post, we got up at 5:45 this morning. After checking the KSC (Kennedy Space Center) Website, we prepared a breakfast to go, got some coffee into gigantic cups, woke up the boys and off we went to the east … Direction Cape Caneveral. From a technical point of view, the space shuttle was all go, however, the weather was at 70 percent chance of a no-go.
Our tickets had mismatching information - Our parking ticket said, we had to be there at 8am in the morning, the entry ticket said, we could get into KSC beginning at 8am. So, to be on the safe side, we calculated to be there at 8am. It is about a 70 miles and we didn’t know about morning traffic, so finally at 6:45 we were on our way.
Traffic was actual very low and we were at KSC at about 8:05am. No problem getting into the Visitor Center. After having our bags checked, we were thinking about what to do. I went to the information counter in order to get some programs and some information on where we may watch the liftoff (if it would be today…), what we may do, etc. At the counter, I had a really, well, funny, experience. It was better than slap-stick. A man, with a slight mexican(?) accent was trying to get to know, what his tickets all included. It went like this. Him: "We have tickets for the l(a)unch. Where do we have to be?" "Well, you got tickets for the launch. You can view it from the east side of the Visitor Center." "No, we have tickets for the lunch, where do we get the food" "Oh, you mean ‘lunch with an astronaut’ - let me see your ticket" "Here are our tickets" "Oh, it’s just for the launch" "I said to the lady at the phone - we want tickets for the launch with the lunch" "No you only have launch" "No rocket?" "Yes, only the rocket launch, but no lunch"… and so on. I had to watch out, that I wasn’t going to start laughing.
BTW, did I mention, that there were a lot of visitors at the KSC. Oh, yeah - and there were visitors. And third - there were really a lot of visitors at the KSC.
One of the recommendations I got from the information desk, was to take the tour to the Saturn V center, where some movies are shown and an exhibit is open to the public including a complete Saturn V rocket. The most important thing however, is the view to the launch pads of space shuttle. So, we went to the busstop and joined the queue. Did I mention, there were a lot of people waiting. Seems like a lot of people had the idea of going on the tour (the last tour was at 9:15am). We waited for about 45 minutes to board one of the busses.
In the mean time, when we talked to the personnel, they were not too positive about the launch in the afternoon. There was a cold front moving in and it should hit right about launch time. The launch time could not be changed as the shuttle had to go directly to the ISS and the launch window was about 10 minutes wide.
We went to the Saturn V exhibit and - most importantly - made some pictures of the shuttle launch pads. After 45 minutes, it was announced, that the Saturn V exhibit was about to be closed in preparation for the shuttle launch. After another short 30 minute wait to board a bus back to the visitor center (Did I mention, there were a lot of people)
We still were 3 hours before launch. The chances for a launch have increased from 30% to 40%. On the way back to the visitor center, we passed the bus carrying the astronauts to the shuttle. The boys spotted an alligator in the pond next to the road. That was definitely more interesting than the bus with the astronauts.
Back in the visitor center, we wanted to have a look at the attractions. Did I mention, there were a lot of people? The waiting line for shuttle experience was 2 hours. The waiting line for the IMax movies was more than 2 hours. We ended up, just walking around and spend time in the center.
The boys got hungry, so we were looking into the restaurants. However, queues without end… and did I mention: There were a lot of people. So we found a small barbecue and joined the line for some hamburgers. The "cooks" or "hamburger preparers" weren’t really the fastest and the queue was quite long. So it took us about 45 minutes to get something to eat. A second shock were the prices - 4 cheeseburger and two bottled waters = 36US$ — Wow. As A dessert, I got the boys two icecreams - another 9US$.
We found a nice spot to watch the launch later on and we enjoyed our cheeseburgers. In front of us, was a small wall and a little lake behind it. The boys spotted two alligators swimming in the water behind it. This was really amazing - normally everything in the themeparks is more than safe and here, alligators are not even separated from the visitors.
A little bit to the left, where we were sitting, a video display showed the launch pad.
So, 2:45 was approaching, everyone got their camera ready. We were checking for the tenth time, that we had good view in the direction of the launch pads. And finally we saw it - Space Shuttle cleared the tree line and climbed up into the sky. Boy - that thing is fast. After a couple seconds, the noise of the take off finally reached us. After about one minute, Space shuttle was so high, you could no longer see it.
From the launch itself, I don’t have any pictures, as I was filming the launch with the camera. Once I figured out, on how to put a Video into the weblog, I will make it available. So for now - only some smoke (mostly water) clouds from the launch.
So, Space Shuttle made it and we saw it live. (We don’t have to come back tomorrow ;-))
After the launch, we decided to drive back to Orlando. Getting out of KSC wasn’t a problem at all, however half way through Merritt Island, the traffic jam started (basically it was a traffic light just before getting on the highway, 15 miles away…). It took us approx. 3 1/2 hours to get back to Orlando.
On the way back, we stopped at the Lego store and I got the "Mindstorm Robots" - but that is a another story.
