Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center - aerial view of Launch Complex 39 with (centre) Vehicle Assembly Building — NASA
95 students from St Paul’s, St Paul’s Girls’ School, Godolphin and Latymer and Latymer Upper flew out this summer to Florida to visit the Kennedy Space Center.
Two days were spent exploring the exhibits, shows and displays. A further day was dedicated to an astronaut-training experience, including a James Bond style centrifuge and a simulated mission with inevitable disasters to tackle. There was time, too, to get to a baseball match, a shopping mall and the nearby theme parks.
The sheer scale of the space program is quite incomprehensible until you have stood by the launch pads or the vehicle assembly building where a full height Saturn V (111 metres high with the Apollo spacecraft on top) can be rolled out vertically. The bravery of the astronauts was brought home by the massive technical complexity of the space ships, put together with an ounce of ingenuity, a dash of luck and a good deal of duct tape!
The chance to see a space shuttle launch was dashed through technical delays, but the visit was thoroughly memorable all the same.
