FAC T L E T
the Astronaut Memorial where fallen heroes
of the space program are memorialized, and
a children’s playdome where kids can play
in a space themed playground. In the future,
the revamped Astronaut Hall of Fame will be
opening just outside of the Rocket Garden.
While there, be sure to take the free bus
tour. It will take you onto the actual Kennedy
Space Center property where you get to see
the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, the
Launch Control Center, and other buildings
in the main KSC area, Then you’ll head out
along the massive crawlerway and pass by
the launch pads used to launch 135 Space
Shuttle missions and every manned mission,
to date, that has gone to the Moon. If you’re
lucky there might be a NASA crawler transporter outside for you to see.
At the end of the bus tour you’ll stop at the
Saturn V center. You’ll see two presentations,
the first in a three-screen theater that covers
the early space race with Russia, starting with
Sputnik, up through the early Apollo flights up
until Apollo 8. Next you’ll move into a second
theater, which contains the actual launch
control center that was used to launch
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the
Moon.
The Apollo 14 Command
and Service Modules were
named Kitty Hawk, while
the Lunar Module was
named Antares.
The presentation takes you through the
countdown to launch of the mighty Saturn V
that propelled Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and
William Anders to their historic spaceflight.
Following that presentation you’ll enter
the main area of the Saturn V building where
you’ll see a fully restored Saturn V rocket
laid down end to end. Taking up more than
the length of a football field, the mighty
rocket alone is a lot to take in. Along the
way through the building while looking at the
Saturn V you’ll find information on the power
that the vehicle made, what it took to move
the huge vehicle, a brief synopsis of each
Apollo mission, a scale model explaining the
different stages of the Saturn V, and much
more.
This facility also has the original Apollo
14 Capsule that took Command Module
Pilot Stuart Roosa, Lunar Module Pilot and
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www.RocketSTEM .org