STS-134
Some time ago, Adam and I decided we should take our kids to see a space shuttle launch. It was just a thought for a while...until the ball started rolling and we got more and more excited about it! The launch of Endeavour was set to be the last launch from the NASA space program and it was set to be the last flight that Endeavour would take. (Since then, it has been announced that Atlantis is set to launch on July 8, marking the end of the space program.)
First of all, we tried getting tickets through the Kennedy Space Center to view the launch from the grounds of the Center. This ticketing system worked like a lottery, where we entered all our pertinent information and waited to see if we were "chosen" from the pot to have the opportunity to buy tickets. About a week later, we received an email stating that we hadn't been selected to purchase these tickets, but the website listed 2 different tour companies that might have tickets available. We ended up buying our tickets from one of them, found a place to stay, a car to rent and booked our plane tickets to Orlando.
Then the mission was postponed for 10 days....
So we re-booked everything for April 29 and crossed our fingers that the whole thing would work out! Adam's Dad wasn't able to come with us for the attempt on April 19, but when the whole thing was pushed back 10 days, he was able to come to Orlando, but would have to watch the launch on his own as we couldn't get him a ticket to come with us on the bus tour.
We arrived in the afternoon and the girls were thrilled to have left the snowstorm behind in Calgary and to step of the plane and into the heat and humidity of Orlando. We took the train shuttle from the terminal over to where our bags and customs were located. After making sure we had everything we rented a van and made our way to the resort we'd booked.
The grounds of this place were absolutely beautiful and we spent most of our time in the swimming pools while we were there!
Calli's dress matched the plants!!
This path circled the pond we could see when we exited our room and continued around the whole resort.
The pond and fountain attracted a variety of ducks. There weren't any 'Caution: Alligators' signs anywhere, but we still didn't feel comfortable venturing down there.
There were a few resident peacocks on the grounds which made for a lovely wake-up call in the morning!
The tickets we bought included a 2nd day at Kennedy Space Center, so we went out the day before the launch to explore. We spent a wonderful few hours touring the space center and seeing all we could see. Here is Calli in front of the rocket garden.
Marin and Calli were really there!!!!
This is the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), that you always see on tv! "It is one of the largest buildings in the world and is where the Solid Rocket Boosters, External Fuel Tank and the Orbiter are combined to make the space shuttle vehicle."
This big contraption is called the Crawler Transporter. It weighs 6 million pounds and moves approx 1 mph, carrying the completed space shuttle vehicle out to the launch pad. During one of the presentations we watched, the narrator commented that it isn't a matter of how fast they can get the crawler to move to the launch pad, it's how slowly they can get it over there. The average trip takes 5 hours from VAB to launch pad, which is only 5.6km away! Click on "Crawler Transporter" above for some cool facts about the machines, aptly nicknamed Hans and Franz!
This photo shows the track that the Crawler travels on to get out to the launch pad and back. It also shows Endeavour ready to blast off! The track is the light coloured gravel "roads" separated by a strip of grass in the middle. One track of the crawler takes up one strip of the "road!"
My little family at the Gantry with the shuttle and the launch pad in the background! This point was the closest we could get to the actual space shuttle!!
Our next stop was the Apollo/Saturn V Center where we saw so many cool artifacts and astronaut memorabilia from the Apollo missions, including space suits, travel logs and pieces of the moon!
We even got to touch an actual rock from the moon!!!
Inside the Apollo Center....
The entrance to the space center. We were going back after exploring the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
This big granite rock was suspended on a water fountain. It was fun to watch the girls push the rock around and read the names of the various constellations all over it!
Adam and his girls...Astronauts for the day!
The launch was scheduled for late afternoon the following day. We were set to board our bus in Orlando at 0530, then be driven to Kennedy Space Center where we could tour the grounds and the center and see the IMAX movie etc, then hop back on the bus which would take us out to the NASA Causeway (see map below - NASA Parkway), where we would watch the launch. (If you direct the map more towards the right, you'll see the causeway over the water where we watched the launch from.)
View Larger Map
We got up very early that day and Byron drove us to the pick up spot where we would board our bus. We had hoped by arriving early that we wouldn't have to wait in any lines...but apparently everyone had the same idea! So we made an executive decision and 5 of us, (Adam, Joanne, Calli, Marin and I) hopped out of the van, grabbed our stuff and walked to our bus and Byron carried on with the van to Titusville where he would watch the launch.
We snoozed on the way out to Kennedy Space Center on our bus and when we arrived we waited in line to get through the security and ticket check lines before we were able to make our way into the line for coffee!
We actually headed straight to the line up for coffee and breakfast! We ended up waiting there for an hour before waiting in another line to get back on the bus, which would take us out to the causeway to see the launch.
After we got breakfast, we waited for the bus and the girls ran around in the rain.
At this point, we were already part way through our line and all those people were behind us! We had special VIP tickets through our tour company, so we were in a different line than those common folk! Haha!
We snoozed on the bus on the way out to the causeway...even though the excitement was palpable! We were only 3 hours from launch time! We were thrilled to see how close we were to the launch pad and that there was only water between us and the shuttle!
There were vendors out selling food and drinks and memorabilia as well. How clever to have a snack shack like this!
Unfortunately, as we were driving out...they scrubbed the launch due to technical issues with the shuttle during their routine checklists. Our bus dropped us off to have a look at the shuttle in the distance and we marveled at how incredible the viewing spot was before getting back on the bus which would take us back to Orlando.
Me on the causeway!
Needless to say, we slept the whole way back. Once we arrived, we weren't sure how long we'd have to wait for our ride to pick us up! We had quasi-arranged a plan the night before, but we definitely weren't planning on the launch being scrubbed at that point! So we set up our lawn chairs at the spot we'd predetermined for pick up and we waited, assuming that Byron would have heard that the whole thing had been scrubbed and would be on his way back to find us. Miraculously, we only waited about 1/2 an hour before he pulled up!! We headed back to the resort to decide on our next plan of attack.
They had tentatively rescheduled another launch attempt for Sunday (it was Friday the 29th) and we figured we could wait it out until then without messing up any other plans. Eventually, they pushed the launch back even further and we made the decision to go home and wait until we knew a solid launch date.
Next up, our trip to Universal Studios and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure! Stay tuned!!
First of all, we tried getting tickets through the Kennedy Space Center to view the launch from the grounds of the Center. This ticketing system worked like a lottery, where we entered all our pertinent information and waited to see if we were "chosen" from the pot to have the opportunity to buy tickets. About a week later, we received an email stating that we hadn't been selected to purchase these tickets, but the website listed 2 different tour companies that might have tickets available. We ended up buying our tickets from one of them, found a place to stay, a car to rent and booked our plane tickets to Orlando.
Then the mission was postponed for 10 days....
So we re-booked everything for April 29 and crossed our fingers that the whole thing would work out! Adam's Dad wasn't able to come with us for the attempt on April 19, but when the whole thing was pushed back 10 days, he was able to come to Orlando, but would have to watch the launch on his own as we couldn't get him a ticket to come with us on the bus tour.
We arrived in the afternoon and the girls were thrilled to have left the snowstorm behind in Calgary and to step of the plane and into the heat and humidity of Orlando. We took the train shuttle from the terminal over to where our bags and customs were located. After making sure we had everything we rented a van and made our way to the resort we'd booked.
Calli on the airport train shuttle.
The grounds of this place were absolutely beautiful and we spent most of our time in the swimming pools while we were there! Calli's dress matched the plants!!
This path circled the pond we could see when we exited our room and continued around the whole resort.
The pond and fountain attracted a variety of ducks. There weren't any 'Caution: Alligators' signs anywhere, but we still didn't feel comfortable venturing down there.
There were a few resident peacocks on the grounds which made for a lovely wake-up call in the morning!
The tickets we bought included a 2nd day at Kennedy Space Center, so we went out the day before the launch to explore. We spent a wonderful few hours touring the space center and seeing all we could see. Here is Calli in front of the rocket garden.
Marin and Calli were really there!!!!
This is the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), that you always see on tv! "It is one of the largest buildings in the world and is where the Solid Rocket Boosters, External Fuel Tank and the Orbiter are combined to make the space shuttle vehicle."
This big contraption is called the Crawler Transporter. It weighs 6 million pounds and moves approx 1 mph, carrying the completed space shuttle vehicle out to the launch pad. During one of the presentations we watched, the narrator commented that it isn't a matter of how fast they can get the crawler to move to the launch pad, it's how slowly they can get it over there. The average trip takes 5 hours from VAB to launch pad, which is only 5.6km away! Click on "Crawler Transporter" above for some cool facts about the machines, aptly nicknamed Hans and Franz!
This photo shows the track that the Crawler travels on to get out to the launch pad and back. It also shows Endeavour ready to blast off! The track is the light coloured gravel "roads" separated by a strip of grass in the middle. One track of the crawler takes up one strip of the "road!"
My little family at the Gantry with the shuttle and the launch pad in the background! This point was the closest we could get to the actual space shuttle!!
Our next stop was the Apollo/Saturn V Center where we saw so many cool artifacts and astronaut memorabilia from the Apollo missions, including space suits, travel logs and pieces of the moon!
We even got to touch an actual rock from the moon!!!
Inside the Apollo Center....
The entrance to the space center. We were going back after exploring the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
This big granite rock was suspended on a water fountain. It was fun to watch the girls push the rock around and read the names of the various constellations all over it!
Adam and his girls...Astronauts for the day!
The launch was scheduled for late afternoon the following day. We were set to board our bus in Orlando at 0530, then be driven to Kennedy Space Center where we could tour the grounds and the center and see the IMAX movie etc, then hop back on the bus which would take us out to the NASA Causeway (see map below - NASA Parkway), where we would watch the launch. (If you direct the map more towards the right, you'll see the causeway over the water where we watched the launch from.)
View Larger Map
We got up very early that day and Byron drove us to the pick up spot where we would board our bus. We had hoped by arriving early that we wouldn't have to wait in any lines...but apparently everyone had the same idea! So we made an executive decision and 5 of us, (Adam, Joanne, Calli, Marin and I) hopped out of the van, grabbed our stuff and walked to our bus and Byron carried on with the van to Titusville where he would watch the launch.
We snoozed on the way out to Kennedy Space Center on our bus and when we arrived we waited in line to get through the security and ticket check lines before we were able to make our way into the line for coffee!
We actually headed straight to the line up for coffee and breakfast! We ended up waiting there for an hour before waiting in another line to get back on the bus, which would take us out to the causeway to see the launch.See the breakfast sign??
After we got breakfast, we waited for the bus and the girls ran around in the rain. 
At this point, we were already part way through our line and all those people were behind us! We had special VIP tickets through our tour company, so we were in a different line than those common folk! Haha!
We snoozed on the bus on the way out to the causeway...even though the excitement was palpable! We were only 3 hours from launch time! We were thrilled to see how close we were to the launch pad and that there was only water between us and the shuttle!
There were vendors out selling food and drinks and memorabilia as well. How clever to have a snack shack like this!
Unfortunately, as we were driving out...they scrubbed the launch due to technical issues with the shuttle during their routine checklists. Our bus dropped us off to have a look at the shuttle in the distance and we marveled at how incredible the viewing spot was before getting back on the bus which would take us back to Orlando.Calli on the causeway.
Me on the causeway!
Needless to say, we slept the whole way back. Once we arrived, we weren't sure how long we'd have to wait for our ride to pick us up! We had quasi-arranged a plan the night before, but we definitely weren't planning on the launch being scrubbed at that point! So we set up our lawn chairs at the spot we'd predetermined for pick up and we waited, assuming that Byron would have heard that the whole thing had been scrubbed and would be on his way back to find us. Miraculously, we only waited about 1/2 an hour before he pulled up!! We headed back to the resort to decide on our next plan of attack. They had tentatively rescheduled another launch attempt for Sunday (it was Friday the 29th) and we figured we could wait it out until then without messing up any other plans. Eventually, they pushed the launch back even further and we made the decision to go home and wait until we knew a solid launch date.
Next up, our trip to Universal Studios and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure! Stay tuned!!
Comments
M-J
Can't wait to see the next part! Yay!
xo Suzie