Sunday, December 12, 2004

Today we visited the Kennedy Space Center, something I've wanted to do since I was a young boy. Interesting tour. The hardware at the launch complex is enormous (Vehicle Assembly Building, crawler transporters, and launch platforms), and even having seen it all many times on video and knowing the various dimensions, etc., one really needs to see it up close to appreciate it. The entire complex sits in the middle of a wildlife refuge, and we saw many species on the tour, including a couple of alligators, great blue herons, small blue herons, one rare rosy spoonbill, and a very large eagles' nest (minus the eagles). We did not drive out to the launch pad because a launch was scheduled today (a test launch of Boeing's new Delta 4 Heavy), however the launch was scrubbed so we did not get to see it.

There was quite a bit of hurricane damage evident on the VAB, and we saw more and more damage as we drove south through Cocoa Beach and the other towns along the space coast. This section of the state was particularly hard-hit.

Tonight we are camped at the state park campground at Sebastian Inlet (map). We were lucky to get one of the last sites left when we pulled in. It's a nice park, with some sites right on the water. However, we're being eaten alive by bugs...

We will probably ease out of here fairly late tomorrow, in hopes that the Delta 4 Heavy launch may go ahead (launch window 2:32-5:28pm EST) and we might get a view of it from our route south of here.

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