Memories of KSC

I'm not one to believe in numerology - that our lives are dictated by certain numbers - but the number 3 does factor into my life significantly.  I won't go into all the sordid details, but here are some easily coincidental facts about the number 3 and this year:

• I will fly into Orlando three times this year (visited Universal in May, GRAIL tweetup in September, and then Disney World in December)
• This will be the third year in a row that I've come to Orlando:
• Disney World and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in October 2009
• STS-132 launch in May 2010 and Disney World in October 2010
• The above-mentioned trips

Because I'll be heading down for the launch in a mere four weeks (side note: WOO-HOO!  28 days until I leave for the GRAIL Tweetup!  WOO-HOO!), I thought I would throw together a brief reminiscence of the other trips I made there.

The first visit
In October 2009, my wife, myself, and a good friend of ours went down to Disney World to check out their Halloween party.  I, having never been and not (at the time) a huge Disney fan, was okay with the trip, but I told my wife that if we were going down there, I had to see Kennedy.  I'm not sure when I get bit by the space bug, but I have been interested in NASA and the space program for quite some time.

We drove out to KSC and did the tour of the Visitor Center and also took the Cape Canaveral: Then and Now tour.  I was so glad that we took the tour, because I loved being able to go see the blockhouse from where Alan Shepard's flight was controlled.  To see the sites and locations of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs was just amazing.  For me, the culmination of the tour was being able to see Pad 34, where the Apollo 1 tragedy occurred.

Me at Pad 34

As amazing as the space shuttle, the International Space Station, the Hubble, Juno, JWST, and all the other more recent achievements are, I am inherently drawn to the moon missions.  Whether it's nostalgia for the space obsession that gripped this country in the 60s, the unthinkable technological breakthroughs that got us there, or the sheer testicular fortitude that it took to say "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."  And for obvious reasons, I always equate the Apollo 1 fire with the struggles, sacrifices, and willpower that got us to the Sea of Tranquility.

Apollo 1 memorial plaque at Pad 34

The second visit
As the space shuttle program wound down, demand for tickets to view the launches (as well as these new-fangled thingamajigs called "tweetups") were hard to come by.  Early in 2010 my father and I decided that we would try to get tickets for the last launch of the shuttle Atlantis [at the time, STS-135 was a mere rumor and dream].  The process for getting the tickets were to go online into a "waiting room" and then people would be randomly selected to buy tickets.  We were hoping for causeway tickets, but were willing to settle for Visitor Center.  When the day to buy tickets arrived, we were very lucky.  And by lucky, I mean that so many people tried to get into to buy tickets, it crashed the servers.  When they announced the new date tickets went on sale, we tried again, and managed to get tickets for the Visitor Center.

We decided to drive instead of fly, so we packed up and drove all the way from about Chicago to Orlando over the course of one day.  It is a haul, no doubt about that, but we made it safe and sound.  We went and toured KSC the day before the launch, and it was great to be able to share that with my dad, who is also a space geek (he even attended a space camp for teachers back in the 90s).

Me with Atlantis in the far background

It was a bright and super hot day in Florida, and I really should have put some sunscreen on my legs (I can still barely make out the burn line on my legs over a year later).  We got there as early as we could to make sure we could stake out our spots.  I wish I could have been a part of the tweetup or gotten causeway tickets, but I am so very thankful that not only did I get to experience a shuttle launch in person, but I got to share it with my father.

Me and my dad

The third visit
Coming September 7, 2011