
What do the thermal folks have to say about those pants? |

Oh my. |

The CM is being pulled off of the SM! |

Just by coincidence, we're visiting KSC in the middle of my coverage of the Challenger accident for The Space Above Us. |

The waitress at our hotel had a ton of cool pins! I think she was hoping I'd get her a Restore-L pin |

Blue Origin is building something |

"Hey Aunt Teresa!" |

Aunt Teresa loves VR |

Mom with Atlantis! |

Mom and Aunt Teresa with Atlantis! They were both suitably impressed |

Who loves space shuttles? |

Hey old buddy |

Atlantis does not like belly rubs. |

Aunt Teresa ventured partway into the 3/8 scale ISS |

So many tiles! |

A deorbit checklist for the shuttle! |

Mom's the pilot on this mission |

I took this photo about 2 milliseconds before being run over by the shuttle |

It's MMU 2! I lost track of which ones actually flew |

Aft section of Atlantis |

Those big huge flight deck windows |

Hubble mockup rocking the NASA worm |

Aunt Teresa goes down the reentry slide! |

She was really moving. Mom chickened out! |

Mom examining artifacts from the Challenger |

It's pretty incredible seeing the Challenger debris up close and in person |

Closeup of the damage on Challenger |

Scars |

Some of the white tiles that were common on Columbia and Challenger |

Columbia's eyes |

Incredible they survived in such good condition |

It's a pretty sobering room |

SpaceX Heavy! |

Lunch has crashed |

How will I eat?? |

Going on the early space tour! |

On the bus |

Just a couple of Falcon 9 first stages hanging around after returning from space, no big deal. |

Falcons! |

This is how the Falcons get moved around |

The tour guide made fun of SpaceX for putting their logo on everything... something NASA definitely definitely isn't guilty of |

Hangar S! Where it all started |

The birthplace of the human spaceflight program |

These are the range radars that sometimes cause scrubs when they have issues |

Secret NRO building! |

STINKTOWN: population Bryce |

A V2 engine! It's so complicated but at the same time has an elegance to its design |

The Navaho.. the most influential program to go nowhere |

Listening to the Air Force tour guide |

Little weather sensor sent up on sounding rockets to see if it's OK for the big rockets to fly |

Check out these stylish control panels |

Isogrid skin for a Delta. This is the old style. For Vulcan they switched to rectangular patterns that are even lighter |

Look who I found just lying around! It's Gemini 2! One of the first vehicles to fly in space twice |

The history of Gemini 2 |

They actually cut a hole in it and then put the cut out piece back in to see if it would survive reentry |

I wonder where that piece is today? Also, I think this hole is bigger than the original piece. I'm guessing they cut out a bigger piece to analyze |

Pretty impressive model collection! |

X-20! Also known as... Dynasoar! |

The commander's seat is full of robot parts |

Also the pilot's seat |

Closeup on Gemini 2's skin |

Early communications satellites are funny. I think they didn't have much emphasis on attitude control |

That's a big heavy computer to put in a missile |

Mom and Aunt Teresa thought it was pretty interesting |

Closeup of the V2 plumbing |

Dynasoar and Manned Orbiting Laboratory! Big space programs in an alternate history |

Pffft. Dynasaor |

Gemini's a neat spacecraft |

The tour guide told the story of Gemini 2 |

Old antennas |

Old Delta IV core lying around. The rain stripped away teh insulation |

Like a tornado shelter? |

SpaceX! |

Mom got excited about Jeanie. What's funny is that comic down there makes fun of everyone getting excited about I Dream of Jeanie instead of Mercury! |

So many clocks |

Original controls from the Mercury days |

This computer looks like a fake computer from some 50s movie |

Watch your levels! |

Look at all these little switches and lights! |

Cool big dials |

Our tour guide was great |

Hello, and welcome to The Space Above Us.. |

This is a cool window to look through |

Unfortunately it's extremely green and misty since it's so thick and old. It's really a whole bunch of windows stuck together |

Whoa! An actual teletypewriter! As in TTY! But not the virtual type |

DIGITAL, you say |

Like core rope memory? |

These are the windows Wernher von Braun watched America's first orbital launch from. Standing right where I'm standing |

This is how you control it? |

Ham's little space pod |

Aunt Teresa is taking lots of pictures |

Mom's in the Firing Room! |

I guess these two Jupiter launches were pretty boring |

I didn't realize Enos got his own mission patch! |

Also ham! |

This is a sample of those green windows. You can see just how thick it is |

Firing Room B. Just as it was over 60 years ago |

A lot of history happened in here |

I guess this is before 911 |

Mom couldn't resist posing with Jeanie |

Details on the blockhouse |

This is where it all started! For the US at least |

Old train engine used to move the rockets around |

An old Hound Dog missile that's broken down a bit |

A Titan I, the predecessor to the Titan II! |

The engine on the back of the Delta IV core |

I believe this is an authentic Redstone missile, erected where Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom launched on their Mercury flights |

Thrust deflector |

"MR7" is painted on the bottom, just like it was for Alan Shepard |

Mom and Aunt Teresa on the pad where Americans first launched into space! |

It's a photogenic rocket |

Our guide for this was pretty great. He knew everything |

Aunt Teresa says "neat" |

Everyone gather around the rocket! |

Awkward DSLR selfie |

Sacred ground |

One last look at the Redstone |

Beefy looking door |

The view launch controllers would have had for Alan Shepard's flight. Pretty close to the launch vehicle! |

This is the button that launched it! I definitely didn't reach up around the plastic to touch it when nobody was looking! |

Old controls |

A photo of the actual launch next to the current Redstone |

Quite a view |

Old school electronics |

It was tough to make the Redstone visible through the thick green windows |

Old headset? |

Lots of electronics in a rocket like that |

Such chunky electronics |

Switch to launch! |

Yeah, calibrate that computer |

The remains of Challenger are somewhere in this area, at the bottom of a missile silo |

Blue Origin is building stuff |

SpaceX added a second landing zone since the last time I was here! |

Looking down towards the landing zones. No rockets there this time. |

Right next door is SLC-14 |

This is where the orbital Mercury flights launched from! |

Hey let's accidentally include a nearly identical photo |

A monument to the Mercury Seven |

Patriotism at the site of the Apollo 1 accident |

Abandon in place |

Space past and space present |

The Apollo 1 launch mount is falling apart |

It's a pretty incredible place |

It's amazing how these big chunks of concrete can have so much emotional meeting |

Hey it's the ocean! |

December 6th, 1960? This is before any human launches! |

Let's read the kiosk! |

Back on the bus |

It's the astronauts' beach house! |

Launch Complex 39-A looking good. The new black cladding is in place. And look at that crew access arm! |

Back at the visitor complex |

Hey it's the Orion capsule from EFT-1! |

Closeup of the thermal protection tiles on Orion |

A little wear on the flag |

A wide angle view to see the whole spacecraft |

Windows up front |

Each tile gets an identification number |

Up near the docking port |

Hey it's my Dragon! This is the Dragon from COTS-2+! |

This RCS quad looks so handmade! |

The edge of the heat shield |

Funky connectors |

I was there when this Dragon launched as the first commercial vehicle to dock to the ISS |

It was only SpaceX's 8th launch |

Looking inside the Starliner mockup |

Lots of seats in there |

Whoops |

Orion is hard to take pictures of in this dark room |

Me with Dragon! |

Nice looking isogrid on Starliner (I think) |

What the hell is this aspect ratio?? It's looks like a 16:9 image stretched out to 48:9?? |

The pressure vessel for maybe-Starliner |

Bye, Dragon |

Mom's got some cool glasses |

Peeking inside Wally Schirra's Mercury capsule |

The original Project Mercury consoles |

The lighting of this shot was impossible! Mom and Aunt Teresa liked it though |

Looking at personal artifacts of astronauts |

Gordon Cooper used this checklist! |

The mission control center was so basic. But they had to start somewhere! |

Look at the little CRTs! |

Big ol' printer for telemetry |

Overview of the Mercury control center |

Aunt Teresa snaps more pictures |

What's that thermal blanket under the heat shingles? |

Gus Grissom's Mercury spacesuit |

A legend wore this suit |

Detail at the front of the Gemini-IXA spacecraft |

The gap left by the parachute switching to horizontal mode |

Primitive controls.. but good enough to effect an orbital rendezvous! |

Tom Stafford's controls |

Lots of switches |

Aunt Teresa and Mom with John Young's plaque! |

Lots of astronauts in the Astronaut Hall of Fame! |

Even a Titan II needs a brushy brushy now and then |

Mom's turn to crawl into the Mercury capsule |

Mom's ready for space! I guess this makes up for the shuttle slide |

How do you get out? |

Mom's back from her Mercury trip! |

The Atlas is so shiny |

Learning about rockets |

What happened to the F-1 engine! |

Saturn-1B looking good |

Gotta love the rocket garden |

What's up with this bird? |

Mom and Aunt Teresa pose with the SRBs! |

I definitely didn't include this almost identical photo by accident |

Mom and Aunt Teresa agree that the SRBs are big |

I miss the space shuttle |

The Columbia crew on the Space Mirror |

A visit to the Space Mirror is always sobering, but I make sure to go every time I'm at KSC |

Flowers for Ted |

The Challenger crew |

The conquest of space is worth the risk of life |

Bob Crippen's flight suit! |

Wow, this model actually has the updated field joint! You can see the third o-ring and the capture feature |

The original astrovan |

Max Faget's shuttle model |

Atlantis! |

Big doors for the landing gear |

The actual gaseous oxygen vent arm and hood, aka The Beanie |

Looking up at Atlantis' body flap |

The wide angle cell phone view captures the whole thing |

There's that little thermal tile around the water dump valves! After Discovery had icicles building up on the side they replaced the thermal blanket with tiles |

No birds allowed on Mars! |

Astronaut Dan Tani! He was a really cool guy and now he actually listens to my podcast! |

Tani telling great stories about being in space |

Watch out, the ISS is right behind you! |

Aunt Teresa, Mom, and me with astronaut Dan Tani! |

NASA ambulance! |

I was right next to these bleachers when I watched the Falcon Heavy launch |

Gruber Ditch? |

SLC-41, with the Boeing crew access arm |

LC-39A! |

The support structure for SLS is on the pad over at LC-39B |

Looking back at the VAB. Who left the windows open? |

Panorama from the observation gantry |

Mom and Aunt Teresa with LC-39A! |

Group photo! |

Not quite yet though |

Looking up the ramp to LC-39A |

What is SpaceX up to? |

Peeking from behind the launch complex |

I love that crew access arm |

LC-39B |

Recreating a photo from 2004! |

It's a good looking launchpad |

Milling about the camera station |

That's a big camera |

SLS support structure |

Building a tank? You can do that? |

Is that access arm supposed to be so... bending down? |

Our tour guide was awesome |

This pre-Saturn V show is just as hokey as I remembered |

Nice looking consoles though |

Mom seeing the Saturn V for the first time |

I couldn't catch this guy's name! But the red nametag means he's a marine so that certainly narrows the list |

Mom with the Saturn V! |

Mom and Aunt Teresa with the Saturn V! |

LM-9! This almost flew on Apollo 15 |

The ladder is so high |

Looking up into the commander's window |

Aunt Teresa dutifully explores the interactive educational thing |

Aunt Teresa and Mom examining the Apollo 1 hatch |

Scorch marks on the Apollo 1 hatch |

It was too complicated to unlatch |

KSC has the most irritating setup for the Apollo 1 display. Most of the time the artifacts are obscured by useless videos |

Take good samples! |

The top of the S-II stage |

Apollo 14 CM Kitty Hawk's door |

Thrusters for use during entry |

It's a good looking spacecraft |

"Landing in Apollo is a crash!" |

I love the handwritten additions |

Alan Shepard's suit |

A spaceflight legend |

Mom and Aunt Teresa had to pose with the meatball |

Aunt Teresa loves the space shuttle |

And then we played Head's Up! |