RocketSTEM Issue #13 - September 2016 | Page 28

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 26 26 www.RocketSTEM .org