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Trip to the KSC (The real thing!)

Prof. Endwalker

By Prof. Endwalker
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Prof. Endwalker

Prof. Endwalker

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Hi! I Have been away awhile for school reasons and that jazz, but a major reason for my absence was because I went to Florida with my family for spring break! The weather was great, the sea was salty, and the KSC was amazing. Here are some pictures!

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The Rocket Garden, where old rockets, including the Mercury Redstone and the Saturn Skylabs are on display!

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A single Saturn V rocket engine.

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Bus tour to the actual KSC. Bit rough of a ride, so the photos arent great. This is the Vehicle Assembly Building. From 4 miles away. Worlds largest single story building, ladies and gentlemen.

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Launchpad Crawler.

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These photos were taken before the Space X Falcon 9 Launch a few weeks ago, but if you watched the live feed, you may recognize this launch pad. This was 5 days before the launch.

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The crawler's path to the launch pad. Using a special stone so the emense weight doesn't spark the stones, as using gravel would cause serious damage to the crawler and rocket respectively.

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The VAB up close with mission control to the left.

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A Launch Escape System that appears to be for further Orion missions. Fun Fact: The stripes on the American Flag on the VAB are 3 meters wide, and the blue area is the size of a basketball court. The roof of the VAB can hold a professional baseball stadium and it's parking lot. Only on the roof.

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Onto the main attraction... the Saturn V. Here are the engines.

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The command module's engine.

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The command module.

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The Lunar Landing Module.

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Better look at the third stage's engine.

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Martin Marietta (a little hard to see) was the company that helped develop the parts for the Saturn V, and was the company that my late grandfather worked for at the time.

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Atlantis Space Shuttle.

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Beautiful Pictures of the elevons.

That is it for my trip to the KSC. Enjoyed it to the fullest and it was incredible! Anyway, thanks for viewing, and I will see you when I see you. :D

Edited by Prof. Endwalker
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Nibb31

Nibb31

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Man, this is amazing.

But why do they have a Saturn V sitting around? You'd think they launched all of them... ?

There were a few Saturn Vs, Saturn 1Bs, and Apollo CSMs left at the end of the Apollo program, but they were out of LMs. What was left was transferred to the Apollo Applications Program (AAP) for the Skylab missions and ASTP. Then it was it.

I think they flew all the Saturn 1Bs, and then they had nothing left to put on top of the leftover Saturn Vs. So one is at KSC, the other is at JSC.

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razark

razark

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But why do they have a Saturn V sitting around? You'd think they launched all of them... ?

When funding gets cut, missions get cut. When missions get cut, you have leftover hardware.

Also, some of the stages at KSC and Huntsville are not actual flight hardware, but were ground test articles. The Saturn V at Johnson is made up of flight hardware, however they are not all from the same Saturn V.

Edit:

Hunstville has a horizontal display made up of test articles. They also have a vertically stacked replica.

KSC Has a bogus first stage, and the two upper stages are real.

JSC has stages from three different Saturn Vs.

There are also surviving stages at the Michoud Plant in Louisiana, and in the Smithsonian. The later was the Skylab backup.

Edited by razark
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  • 2 weeks later...
SpacePi

SpacePi

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I remember going to Florida two or three years ago (don't quote me, memory a bit foggy) but it was when the last STS launch occurred. My family and I went around the complex a week earlier, stayed with relatives, did typical Florida things (beach, Everglades, DisneyWorld) and saw the launch.

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SlabGizor117

SlabGizor117

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Ahh, i remember all of that! XD I was pretty young when I went though, I would love to go again!

Every single picture you posted I remember being there. It's too bad I was too young to appreciate it.

Hope you had fun here! Did you get a chance to go to Disney while you were here?

-Slab

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Cydonian Monk

Cydonian Monk

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I really need to get back over to the Cape at some point. I've only been there twice, and only remember the first one - 1985 when Challenger was sitting on the pad with STS-51F. Both my trip and the 51-F launch got scrubbed thanks to Hurricane Bob (well, the launch was scrubbed due to SSME failure, but they might've tried again sooner had it not been for the storm). Lots of fun wading back to the car from the KSC visitor's center in two feet of water. :) The other time was in High School on a swimming trip or somesuch... all I remember from that was the new memorial out front.

Nice photos, OP.

Edited by Cydonian Monk
Posted without me pressing any buttons!
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CelticCossack51

CelticCossack51

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I toured around the Saturn V bit... on Google Maps. The only exciting space thing I saw in my life so far was the backup for the first Dongfang Hong satellite in the Chinese Military Museum. Now I'm jealous that my brother went to the KSC and saw STS-120 on the pad.

Edited by CelticCossack51
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Im The One

Im The One

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I liked the alligator sign :)

yeah. My dad works for the USAF and we got orders there once (2008ish). He worked with the delta family rockets. He was actually part of the group that launched spirit and opportunity. They also have another gator by the old shuttle launchpad called king George. If memory serves me right he was an 11-12 ft gator

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