florida
kennedy space center
orlando
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Blasting off to outerspace in Kennedy Space Center
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
I’ve been in Florida, US for over a week now and there’s so much to share. I arrived on 10 Dec at around 5pm and the flight in was incredible. I didn’t know there were that many lakes in Orlando and it was just amazing seeing them up high.
Transit in Texas!
The lakes of Orlando
At the airport I had some trouble getting to the airbnb place however. The plan was to take an Uber, but only UberBlack were allowed to pick up guests from the airport and it actually costs more than the normal cab. I ended up taking the normal cab, and its costs me $50 ): Public transport wasn’t really an option with my barangs barangs.
The airbnb place was literally a closet, but it was just enough and really, the cheapest option I could find at SGD$35 a night. . After checking in, the host was nice enough to drive me to the millennium mall nearby, where I got a T-mobile plan, USD$40, unlimited calls and text and 1gb of data for a month.
Yes, keep calm and carry on.
Millenium Mall
The next My first day here was spent at Kennedy Space Centre and it has revived my dreams of going to outer space <3 I booked a USD$99 tour via Grayline which includes, a guide/driver , transport to and fro and tickets to the centre.
On the way to KSC. It's actually located within a reserve with lots of alligators
The guide recommended the following itinerary: Bus tour around the spaceX launch pads, followed by Atlantis, meet an astronaut, and then the Hubble IMAX movie. That basically covered the best things at the KSC.
At the entrance of NASA. Idk why, but the globe reminds me of Universal's globe ahaha
The rocket fuel tank and booster in the background can be seen from all around the centre
We arrived early and the guide actually arranged a meeting for us with the astronaut of the day
These rockets were used in previous mission and on display at the center
On the bus tour around the launch bays. This building is actually used to build the shuttle and its incredible big and high. In fact, the width of a bus is smaller than the width of one of those stripes on the flag
The shuttle launch pad!
The road on which the shuttle is being carried and delivered on. Because the shuttle is so heavy, special roads and vehicles are used to carry and transport it from the "warehouse" to the launch pad
Part of the bus tour includes a launch simulation in the control room, in the exact setting as in the past
Look at the size of these boosters. Omg.
How the space suit has evolved through the years
The hubble (i think). This is all that is left after everything breaks off after the launch.
The sleeping cabin of the astronauts. It appears like they are sleeping standing, but it's actually not, because there's no gravity in space
Atlantis! The last space shuttle to fly in space before the shuttle programme is canceled. NASA is currently working on a new "shuttle"/SpaceX, a new type of spaceship to launch into space
That's actually an astronaut in training, ahahah. I can't believe they make him/her come and do this things
And the next big project NASA is working on is getting to Mars!
This tour has taught me so much about what NASA does and the history of space travel. There was the APOLLO series, where they landed Neil Armstrong on the moon, but lost a whole crew of astronauts during re-entry. Then came the space shuttle series, which allowed them to relaunch the ship, and only dispensing the fuel lank and booster in the process, reducing the cost of building another space ship. But still accidents happens and they lost another set of crew, with a school teacher in the process, when the space shuttle exploded during the launch. And thus the new programme. I also learnt how the internet and lots of medical and science technologies were invented as a result of building these space ships, which makes me feel like becoming an astronaut/aerospace engineer and make contributions to the world.
It is too late though? I'm already one semester to graduating, ahaha
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