Kennedy Space Center

It is true that experience of Kennedy Space Center is amazing and you will not be able for it throughout your life. If you are developing a plan to visit the center then you should know that the center is open throughout the year. However, it is not open on twenty-fifth of December.

At the same time, the center is not open on particular day of launch. It is a known fact that the center is open in normal working hours. It starts from morning nine and ends at 6 in the evening.

Your trip to Orlando will be considered incomplete if you miss to visit the Kennedy Space Center. Forty five minutes of Drive from famous Orlando attractions will help you reach the Kennedy Space Center.

If you are scheduling to visit the Kennedy Space Center then you should have a ticket. A ticket to Kennedy Space Center is available if you explore the World Wide Web. You will come across lot of websites that will offer you tickets to Kennedy Space Center. It is advisable to compare the rates online this will help you to get a ticket with a lower rate.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the launch site for space craft and Launch Control Center is for guidance, support and information, as well as contact between earth and the spaceship.  Located on Merritt Island, Florida; it is near Cape Canaveral and halfway between Jacksonville and Miami; measuring 34 miles long and 6 miles wide.  About 13,500 people work there with the visitor center available for public tours.  The space center launch sites are at Launch Complex 39 on Pads A and B.  The original project had three stages; called Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.  Mercury's goals were to place a manned spacecraft orbiting the earth; man's performance and abilities to function in space and to make sure that the man came back safely.  It all started in October of 1957, until finally in 1961, first Alan Shepard, then Virgil Grissom made 15 minute flights.  These were done in a Redstone rocket, whereas John Glenn flew an Atlas in 1962.  With all vital information gathered from the Mercury project, the Gemini would use a Titan II ICBM containing a two man capsule and the first flight was March 23, 1965 with Gus Grissom and John Young.  The next mission entailed a spacewalk to be done by Ed White with a total of 12 missions being flown with the Gemini program.  The next was the Apollo using a 3 stage Saturn V rocket, but before that was to happen, tests were done for men and equipment on smaller Saturns and then on January 27, 1967, a fire occurred and Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed.  Apollo 7 was the first manned test in 1967, and Apollo 8, the first Saturn V was launched in 1968 and made 10 lunar orbits before returning safely to earth.  Apollo 9 and 10 tested the lunar ladder and number 11 launched July 16, 1969 and brought Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin to the moon to walk.  Aldrin and Armstrong were the first two human beings to walk on the moon and it was a magical moment shown on the television with the whole world watching and being thrilled about the entire ordeal. 

During the 70s and 80s many missions were successfully flown until that tragic day January 28, 1986, when the world watched in horror as the Challenger rocket, barely over a minute into its flight, the 25th manned mission and the first with a civilian, as well as being the first launch from pad 39B;  exploded into the hearts, minds and memories of the American people.  Still the flights continued, all with great apprehension, but thank God they made it through.  In September, Hurricane Frances, one of three disastrous hurricanes that ripped the center of Florida apart, did some damage to the center and was repaired.  Again in 2005, Hurricane Wilma damaged the center again and again the perseverance of the center's staff prevailed and repaired the damages.

The visitor's complex contains a number of museums, a simulation ride, two Imax theaters and a group of buses that take visitors to some of the restricted areas getting as close as possible.  The admission price includes the bus tour which goes into the restricted area to an observation gallery located on Launch Pad 39 and the Apollo-Saturn V Center.  The observation area gives a wonderful view of the launch pads, A & B, and all of the Kennedy Space Center.  The Apollo-Saturn Museum is huge and built around the center exhibit; a restored Saturn V launch vehicle, an Apollo capsule and many other related items of the Apollo program.  There are two simulators, one shows the environment during a launch of the firing room and the other is the landing.  Also included is a visit to the building where the space station modules are tested.  The complex tour includes two buildings run by the Astronaut's Memorial Foundation; one being the most visible, the Space Mirror Memorial , which is a see through piece of granite engraved with the names of the astronauts who have given their lives to the improvement and enrichment of the space program. 

There are a number of other space related items, the Gemini 9A capsule; Apollo/Skylab Rescue mission Command Module; LM-9, the Apollo Lunar Module for Apollo 15; the Mercury-Atlas 8 capsule sigma 7 and the Apollo 14 Command module Kitty Hawk.  The Central Instrumentation Facility can be seen, as well as the Crawler-transporter, the Crawlerway, the Launch Control Center, Press Site-Clock and Flag Pole, Orbiter Processing Plant, NASA causeway, Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities, operations and checkout building, a list of the Merritt Island launch sites and a list of the  space shuttle missions.  If you do go, then plan on spending the entire day here, to learn, to dream and to remember the Americans who gave their lives so that space travel and exploration could begin, continue and grow into the 21st century.  The next phase is to test the Ares I-X 4 stage solid rocket with Orion crew vehicle.  There are still exciting times to come at the space center; with hopes and dreams of setting up a settlement on the moon, and then going to Mars and into the wild wonderful universe beyond.  And going back to another great source of space drama, which began in 1966, here are the words that helped launch a new era in this country that will be equally as fitting to this new venture for the United States and the earth "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before."