Florida Fly Drive Destination
Kennedy Space Centre

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If you are staying in or araound Orlando as most visitors to Florida will be, then a drive out to the Kennedy Space centre is well worth it. I'd give yourself a full day in your plans because there is so much to see and do.

To see some of the icons of the space age up close is an excercise in getting your sense of scale calibrated. The gigantic crawler that transports the shuttle from the assembly building to the launch pad is unfeasibly big, as is the shuttle assembly building where each of the stars on the American flag painted on the side of the building (picture to the left) is 6 feet tall ! This building is the largest single man made enclosed space in the world.



In contrast I found the full sized shuttle you can go into (see picture to the right) to be a little smaller than anticipated and the Apollo stuff to be all tiny compared to my expectations

Visiting the launch control centre and seeing the simulated launches to the moon really do give you a sense of history and a chance to marvel about how primitive the technology was that enabled this historic feat compared to today. The computer you are reading this on is almost certainly more powerful than all the computers used to control the moon launches put together.

There are a number of IMAX shows to see (the giant cinema system) if you are not lucky enough to visit when a shuttle launch is due, then see one of these films, its the next best thing. This picture shows a shuttle on the launch pad being prepared. Unfortunately, we were a week or so too early to it launch into space.