{"id":9474,"date":"2024-12-14T23:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steveandmarleneontheroad.com\/?p=9474"},"modified":"2025-03-20T22:06:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T02:06:39","slug":"december-14-2024-trip-15-day-13-kennedy-space-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steveandmarleneontheroad.com\/?p=9474","title":{"rendered":"December 14, 2024 : Trip 15, Day 13 – Kennedy Space Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Today was a much more relaxed day at the Kennedy Space Center. The school field trip was done. We still arrived a little bit early, but the lines were tiny today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our big event for today is the bus tour to the Apollo Saturn V Center. We will have the chance to see the launch area and some modern rockets up close.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We knew what was at the top of our list. We signed up for the first available HYPERDECK time available. Then we walked to the Rocket VR station to get a time. The HYPERDECK time slot was first, so we played for a third time. We were helping the girl in the front of the picture with the assist button while we waited. Her score really did improve after we hit the assist button several times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next we went on the Rocket VR ride. It was a very good ride. The launch and reentry effects were very good. Our favorite thing was bouncing virtual tennis balls around in a zero G capsule. It was very realistic experience. We were near Spaceport KSC, so we went on a quick trip to Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We spent some additional time in the Gateway building looking at exhibits.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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The Rocket Garden is a museum of rockets and capsules from prior NASA programs. Getting inside a Mercury capsule that had been gutted of much of its hardware makes you appreciate how small a space the early astronauts had for there rocket ride off the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Obviously, we had scheduled a second trip to HYPERDECK so here we are again. Marlene wanted to take a picture of the scores for our fourth game because she had the high score for our group. When the staff saw us looking at the scores, they said we could do better if we hit the exploding rocks and then held down the trigger until the boost ended. Because there was light attendance today, we got a chance to play again while we were there. We both did better the second time when we knew one of the secrets of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We knew that was probably our last HYPERDECK game. It was lunch time. We had plans for the bus tour after lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bus tour is a relatively short ride from the Visitor Center to the Atlas\/ Saturn V Center. The driver pointed out many places along the way including the assembly building and the launch pads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside the center, there is a a full scale Saturn V rocket. There are numerous displays around the building about the different programs that used the Saturn V rocket. We attended a show about the first moon landing. There were different versions of mission control centers used on some of the missions. The most notable thing about the mission control centers was the age of the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outside the Atlas\/Saturn V Center, we had a much better view of the launch pads. They are huge!<\/p>\n<\/div>

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When we got back to the visitor center, we took a tour of the Heroes and Legends Building. It was educational to see how many people have been involved in the space program.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Our tour time was up. It was time to go to dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our dinner was at Pier 220. It is a very good seafood restaurant in a very nice setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We enjoyed our two days at Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was a much more relaxed day at the Kennedy Space Center. The school field trip was done. We still arrived a little bit early, but the lines were tiny today. Our big event for today is the bus tour to the Apollo Saturn V Center. We will have the chance to see the launch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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