Eight feet in space

As we're planning to see the rocket launch soon, we've decided to start with a bit of theory. So we went to see Kennedy Space Center. And this was a great idea! It was not cheap - 50 USD for an adult, 40 USD for kid, plus 10 USD for parking, there are no 2- or 3-day tickets (but for additional 13 USD per person you can upgrade your ticket to annual pass), but we do not regret any dollar spent on it. The only thing we did not like about it is that they close at 5 pm (and as we mentioned before we're not good at getting up early).

We started exploring KSC around noon and we left after forth announcement that KSC is already closed and please go away. Annual pass option was tempting but we finally decided that we've seen what's most interesting and it's enough for now. We'll be back some day, right now there's a new building being constructed where they'll show Atlantis - grand opening is planned for 4th of July. So for now we're happy with what we've seen. And we've seen a lot. 

We've seen Saturn V with detailed description what is what and how it works, flight control center, few interesting movies showing the history of space flights and landing on the moon, lots ot astronauts sharing their experience and thoughts on just about anything, there was also a space shuttle simulator and great IMAX movie, everything of course well prepared (very stroller friendy, sometimes even more than at Disney's). We've seen also an alligator and eagles' nest - KSC proudly shows the nature around. We were wondering though what's the impact of all the rocket launches on that nature - from what we found out fire and wave of sound can be pretty deadly. Well, maybe it's just part of natural selection. 

Rocket

Maciek was disappointed that they wouldn't let him in the simulator and it was bit difficult for him to sit through the whole IMAX movie (it was way over half an hour and Leo DiCaprio should get some speach therapy), but other than that he liked it (the issue why did astronauts flew there and came back was not easy to explain, in Polish there's one word for sky and heaven and Maciek knows that's it's a place where you go when you die).

What nailed our attention was that it's another place after Disneyworld where we found out how dreams are important and that everything is possible. Our natural Polish scepticism/cinism made us choke on it a bit, but then we figured out that actually it's something that we would like to teach our kids. After all if a regular Polish family can buy a trailer and travel the US, why their kids can't go to space?

Maciek touches moon stone

Ticket to Kennedy Space Center lets you also into Hall of Fame. We went there next day thinking it'll be half an hour stop on our way to Saint Augustine. We expected a wall with astronauts' portraits with American flag next to it or something just as boring.

The building itself is nothing special, free parking didn't give us much hope for good entertainment either, so it was very surprising that we got stuck there for over 3 hours, postponing our trip to Saint Augustine for the next day. Yes, there were astronauts, but on top of portraits there was a very interesting exhibition about space race with lots of interesting facts and souvenirs, films with astronauts talking about their experience, missions and answers to all kind of questions from "how do you use toilet in space" to "do you believe in life in space". There was also a huge sphere with shows about solar system. We took turns and we spent there way over an hour.

Landing on the moon

Later that day it's time for rocket launch. Unfortunately right now there are no manned missions from this part of the world, so it was only the satellite going to the orbit, but better this than nothing. It was not open to public, but thanks to Marek from florydziak.blogspot.com (very interesting blog but in Polish only, but there are great pics and you can use google translator if you want to know more about this - and not only - launch)  we got to the best possible spot for seeing it. We were not alone. There was also Marek, four other Polish people and quite huge multinational crowd. We were about 7-8 miles from launchpad. Marek wanted to go closer but a cop told him to leave. That was just mean...

As far as the launch is concerned we expected more - it looked like a star going slowly towards the sky, and the wave of the sound which came a long while after the start was much quieter than we expected. Even the launchpad was not lit due to cost cutting. It was a really cool experience and we enjoyed the whole "cosmic" part of our trip very much. Long live Space Coast, long live Molvania (as one Romanian singer would shout!).