RocketSTEM Issue #13 - September 2016 | Page 26

FACTLET By Lloyd Campbell If you’ve never been to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and you are reading this article, well you owe it to yourself to make that trip at some point. If you have been there before, but not in a few years, I’d suggest that it’s time for a return trip. The complex has undergone numerous changes and updates, not to mention the addition of the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. The entire facility is top notch and offers you the opportunity to see and learn about actual spacecraft, rockets, spacesuits, and many more interesting artifacts. In the Rocket Garden you will find many of the early launch vehicles used by NASA for both unmanned and manned spaceflight. From the 77-foot tall Juno rocket used to launch some of the earliest satellites, a Redstone and an Atlas that were used for the Mercury launches, a Titan used in the Gemini Missions, right up through the 223-foot Saturn 1B used to test fly Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit, and many in between rockets abound in the garden. More than 1.5 million people per year visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Each rocket has information near it explaining what it is and what it was used for. You’ll also find simulated Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Capsules that you can climb in to see just how cramped those vehicles were. There is also an actual Crew Access Arm from the Apollo program that you can walk down just as the Apollo 11 astronauts did on their way to the Moon. You can meet a real-life astronaut at the Astronaut Encounter where an actual astronaut speaks a couple of times a day. After the presentation, the astronaut normally has time to take your picture with him or her, along with a handshake and greeting! Also available in the Astronaut Encounter theater is a new presentation, “Eyes on the Universe: NASA’S Space Telescopes,” a 3D 4K video presentation which takes you back 13 billion years using images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Also in the main visitors compex there is an IMAX theater showing two different largeformat films throughout the day, as well as 24 24 www.RocketSTEM .org