KSC Visitor Complex

The Rocket Garden (shown above) is the first exhibit to greet entrants to the Visitor Complex at the Kennedy Space Center. The upright rockets launched satellites, space probes, and the Mercury and Gemini manned space missions in the early years of the space program. The much larger horizontal rocket is a Saturn IB, used to launch Apollo missions into low Earth orbit. The even larger Saturn V rocket, not shown in the photo above, was used to launch Apollo missions to the moon. (The photo above is from the link in the first sentence.)

Nancy and I visited Kennedy Space Center today. See my previous post for our bus tour of Launch Complex 39. This post is about other exhibits we enjoyed.

The Apollo/Saturn V Center is a separate building six miles north of the Visitor Complex, accessible by bus from the Visitor Complex. This exhibit houses a complete Saturn V rocket mounted horizontally:

The Saturn V rocket remains to date the largest and most powerful rocket ever launched. It was 363 feet tall and could launch a payload of 310,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. In comparison, the Saturn IB rocket mentioned above was 142 feet tall and could launch a payload of 46,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. The Saturn V rocket was launched 13 times from 1967 to 1973.

In addition to the Saturn V rocket, the Apollo/Saturn V Center includes many other exhibits from the Apollo era: a command/service module (this was the part that orbited the moon); a lunar module (this was the part that landed on the moon); a piece of moon rock that visitors can touch; a collection of space suits; a Firing Room Theater that simulates the launch of Apollo 8; a Lunar Theater that simulates the moon landing of Apollo 11; and more.

Back at the Visitor Complex, the Space Shuttle Center houses the Space Shuttle Atlantis and other exhibits related to the Space Shuttle era:

Unlike the Saturn rockets, the Space Shuttle was reusable. There were six Space Shuttles built. Enterprise was built in 1976 for approach and landing tests, but was not launched into orbit. Four orbiters were originally built: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery and Atlantis. Endeavor was the fifth and last orbiter built in 1991 to replace the loss of Challenger in 1986.

The main components of the Space Shuttle were the orbiter, an external fuel tank, and two external solid rocket boosters. The total assembly was 184 feet tall and could launch a payload of 60,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. The five orbiters were launched a total of 135 times from 1981 to 2011.

There are many other exhibits at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Heroes and Legends is a new exhibit about astronauts and includes the Astronaut Hall of Fame. There are exhibits about current and planned NASA missions. There are two IMAX theaters and much more. Nancy and I did not begin to see everything.

Three crewed U.S. space missions resulted in tragedy, all in late January or early February: Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967 (50 years ago); the Challenger Space Shuttle on January 28, 1986; and the Columbia Space Shuttle on February 1, 2003. NASA observes an annual Day of Remembrance which was Thursday, January 26, this year. The staff at KSC was setting up for this event as we left.