Kennedy Space Center

If you're at all interested in rockets, space launches, NASA, shuttles and the like, the Kennedy Space Center is a must.

There's a main visitor complex with all kinds of vintage rockets and the space shuttle Atlantis, a bus tour that takes you inside the KSC, past the road they use to roll out the rockets to the pad, past the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building to the Apollo building, inside of which is an entire, incredibly huge Saturn V rocket.

That had to be our first stop.

Our last day in Titusville was spent here, at the KSC, and what a fine day it was. There was really more than we had energy to see, so I look forward to returning sometime.

You can see the tracks from where Artemis 1 was rolled out.

The actual control room from Apollo. They have a very cool presentation in this space where a launch is played back in real time.

Only after seeing this and walking the length of the Saturn V do you understand what an incredible machine this was.

Fisher Space Pen gets some love! And, you can buy them in the gift shop.

Vehicle Assembly Building with four huge doors, two on each side.

As we rolled by the ginormous VAB, the synchronized video presentation in the bus gave us various facts and figures.

Out of silly, giggly instinct I shouted out, "How many ping pong balls fit?"

Next thing, the presentation told just just that. I don't remember the exact number, but it was more than 20.

We took the bus back to the KSC and checked out the Atlantis shuttle exhibit. I won't ruin it for you in case you go, but I was not just whelmed with their video presentation, I was overwhelmed.

The Canadarm, for scratching those hard to get at places.

Yup, it's a space terlet.

This place is made for kids!

This place is made for kids' parents with credit cards - the gift shop.

It had escaped me when we'd arrived that the entry plaza was decked out like one of the crawlers used to move the rockets to the pad. Space has a sense of whimsy!

It's astounding that John Glenn went up in a capsule like that atop a rocket like that.

Brave heroes, brave history.

That's all for our trip to Titusville. A little different for this blog - but in a few days, we get down to business. Ignition sequence start...