Day 3 NASA

We went for a Ponderosa breakfast buffet yesterday once we were up and dressed. The buffet was delicious. Matt had steak and scrambled eggs, then fruit then yoghurt and granola. I had a fry up, including beef baked beans, yum. Then an omelette with more beans (they really were good), then fruit, yogurt, granola, banana pudding and peanut butter mousse! The restaurant opened up into a shop, where we ended up buying Matt a darth vader watch and me a light up batman watch for 20 dollars each. I wonder if they will stop working the second we step off the plane!

The drive to NASA took ages and we had to queue for a long time to get in. We were worried about not having much time there, but in the end, we saw what we wanted to see. We headed straight to see Atlantis, the worlds first reusable space craft. We had to queue for 40 minutes to get in, but the way they set it out is very clever, you watch a video on it then the screen lifts and you walk out into the exhibition space with the shuttle hanging over you. Matt went down a slide that shows you how steeply the shuttle lands. Its very steep! We went on a simulator of a shuttle launch, which tips you up vertically and shakes you around a lot, you can even feel the pressure when the thrusters stop once you leave earths atmosphere. Very cool.

We had to queue for a very long time to get on a bus tour to see the Saturn 5 shuttle. The buses take you around the building where they assemble shuttles. Its the biggest single story building in the world. There is an American flag on te side and each stripe is wider than a bus! We saw the moving platforms too which take the shuttles to the launch pads.

The Saturn 5 shuttles are the largest ever built and are the ones that put people on the moon. Nothing can quite prepare you for the size of it. It is quite simply enormous. I took a great photo of Matt looking suitable in awe when he first saw it!

We also touched a piece of moon rock, watched a great video presentation on the moon landings and on the Saturn 5 itself. And had great fun in the gift shop buying souvenirs, and maybe a present or two. We looked around the rocket garden, stood in the walkway that is the last place ob Earth that astronauts see before they leave Earth, and wedged ourselves into an astronauts seat on a shuttle cockpit. The park supposedly shut at 6, but we were finally kicked out at 7.15. It was a great experience.

We headed down the islamd to Cocoa beach where we had dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant  (i had lobster ravioli, Matt had seafood pasta, and we shared a tuna in sesame seed starter). Our helpful waiter told us where to go for the best view of the shuttle launch, so we headed down to the pier,  along with a few hundred other people. The atmosphere was great. At 11.04, just 2 minutes into the 30 minute launch period, we saw a bright flash of light from the launch pad which was about 15 miles away. We heard a distant rumble, then a very bright dot of light went shooting up into the sky. You can even see the fire from the engines in tbe the zoomed in photos. I love my camera! There were a few clouds around, which were lit up orange against the night sky, then the rocket emerged above the clouds to the clear sky. We saw a brighter flash as the rocket left Earth's atmosphere, and the bright dot grew smaller and fainter until it was gone. Matt vidoed the whole thing, so we have so e great footage as well as yhe electric atmosphere recorded on the beach.

I dont know what it is about space travel, but it makes me feel very emotional. Matt asures me that its not just me! The launch was really one of the mosy wonderful things i have ever seen!

I cant upload photos from my camera to the tablet, but here is a photo of the shuttle launch...

And one of the car too...