Day 6: Kennedy Space Center

Originally we wanted to go to the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday as there was a rocket launch planned – but we were unable to get tickets for that date. Fortunately, we were told that the proposed launch was delayed so we didn’t miss anything it seems.

It was quite a drive out to KSC, we were kept entertained on the bus by a documentary about the space shuttle narrated by William Shatner and our driver, Mike, who tried a little too hard to be funny.

When we got to the KSC we were shepherded into the Atlantis museum where we watched a short film which opened up into the museum, the first thing you see is the actual shuttle Atlantis. It was quite spectacular. The photographs we took don’t really do it justice, it’s a huge beast, suspended 23 foot off the floor and at an angle of 43.21 degrees.

After visiting the other sights and interactive exhibits – one of which told Debora she could have a career at NASA thanks to her great result in detaching a solar panel. We then went on the “most realistic” launch simulator which really wasn’t. The ride at Epcot was more entertaining – remember we only went on the timid version! The KSC sim just turns you 90 degrees and shakes a bit. If that’s realistic, I could be an astronaut.

Then we took a 40 minute bus tour of the launch pads and into another exhibit that was about the Apollo missions. Here we had a lunch of an egg mayo roll – way overpriced! Then we touched a bit of the moon and headed back to the main center where we watched a 3D IMAX movie about the hubble telescope narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. The 3D effects weren’t very good and the sound was terrible.

After a trip to the gift shop it was time for a the excruciatingly long bus ride home. When we finally arrived we went for dinner at Chilli’s where Debora had a black bean burger and warm cookie and I had a four cheese enchilada and molten cinnamon cake. Feeling sick and stuffed, we came back to the hotel where I’m writing this whilst watching WWE Raw (I even watched Total Divas last night too). It’s rather odd seeing these in “real time”.