11/04/19 - Exploring the Kennedy Space Center with Mom and Aunt Teresa!

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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!

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