Tuesday April 25 (Orlando - Kennedy Space Centre)

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was about the SOD farmers! They actually grow grass to sell in this part of Florida, lol! At present they have to irrigate due to the drought conditions. We saw lots of trucks laden with sods and even saw some being laid by a new road construction!

It was another gorgeous day today and started at 7.30 am when I was picked up by Fran and Bob. We headed to the Kennedy Space Centre stopping on the way for some McDonalds breakfast. 

We arrived just after nine so very good timing, purchased our tickets and made our way inside. 

First stop was at the IMAX theatre after walking passed the Rocket Garden. We watched "Journey into Space", this was very interesting, it took us from Apollo to the Orion program and getting to Mars! It contained a lot of history as well as much about the program to fly to Mars. 

There are so many challenges, the first being to design a rocket powerful enough to clear the earth's atmosphere and give that boost to get to Mars. There is to be a mission to obtain more detailed information of Mars interior possibly in May  2018. 

There may also be a test of Orion round the moon in 2018. The SLS (Space Launch System) will be the most powerful rocket built by NASA and is continuing the design/testing process.

We then went into the Mars exhibit and saw some of the photos that have come back from the rovers as well as seeing some of the rovers. Some of the planning to get to Mars is also being shown there. 

Then it was time to wander over to "Lunch with an Astronaut". This was a sit down buffet, and they served salads, roast potatoes chicken and salmon. Very tasty! 

The Astronaut was Dr John-David Partoe, he was quite interesting and talked about the effects of space on the human body and the challenges faced by extended time in space as on a trip to Mars which would be a three year round trip.

 The International Space Station took ten years to build, it was started fifteen years ago and it took 35 shuttle missions to take all the parts up. It is the size of 2 football pitches or a six bedroom house. The astronauts work twelve hour shifts with one hour for lunch. 

They also have to do two hours of exercise each day to keep their body from deterioration. 

They work five days a week and on Saturday morning they have housekeeping to keep the shuttle clean and in good condition! All time is measured from GMT.

In space the human body will lose 20% of its bone mass. The use of giant exercise machine and exercising to the full strength of their muscles leads to 0% bone loss in a human. This, of course, may have application for people on earth.

He did tell us that zero G is amazing and they have a lot of fun on ISS due to this. 


Looking out at earth is awesome and makes one realise how insignificant humans are. It took five years of training and education to make it to the shuttle program from selection to flight., everyone has to be able to speak Russian and English.

After lunch we took the tour over to the area where the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), mobile launcher platform and launch pads are situated. 

The mobile platform has four tractor like vehicles one at each corner and travels at less than one mile per hour. The ground that the mobile platform travels along is very different from the tarmac we drove along. It is made up of river rock used because it is round rather than sharp and it has anti spark properties. It is 3.5 miles long to 39A and 4.2 miles long to 39B. 

At one side were two flame deflectors, these are made of a special cement and metal material to withstand the heat from the rocket engines as they fire up. 

We also saw a rocket on the Space X tower, it is using launch pad 39A, they are set to use their Falcon rocket to launch a satellite on Sunday. We also saw many of the viewing areas, they have to be at least 4 miles away from the launch!

It was very interesting but disappointing in that we did not stop for photos. They could also actually organise the bus seating better to allow people who walk with difficulty to sit nearer the front with able bodied and children asked to fill up from the rear!

On our return we went into the Atlantis building. We watched two films and then in front of us the screen behind a door went up and there was Atlantis itself. 

It was wonderful to see a shuttle that had actually flown. We wandered round and had a look from every angle. I then carried on and did the Shuttle Take Off simulation. This was quite entertaining and not too bad on the body, lol! We managed a better view of the Space X rocket form the downstairs area.

After that we wandered back towards the car park, experiencing a Space Dots ice cream on the way, very strange, lol! We then went to a lovely restaurant at Port Canaveral for dinner and, on the way back to town, saw a glorious sunset, the perfect ending to a fantastic day!

I was dropped off at my hotel just before 8 pm. It was a wonderful day and I am so grateful to Fran and Bob for spending the day with me. It is always more fun to visit these places with people. They were very knowledgeable which was very useful. Bob shared many stories from people he knew who worked at the Space Centre as well as his own working as an Air Con/Refrigeration person for many years. Fran also had some tales to tell from her years as a school bus driver. Both Fran and Bob were good company and looked after me very well and I cannot thank them enough!

On the downside, I left my spare camera battery in Fran's walker basket so we will have to see how I can get it sent to me, silly me!!