I went today to #KSCVC, where I worked for ten years doing #NASA education and outreach.
Yesterday they unveiled a new video board at the entrance. Called the "Kennedy Entry Experience," it uses JFK's September 1962 Rice University speech to describe NASA history -- from Project Mercury through today's #ISS to the future. A+, in my opinion.
Here come a series of photos from today's excursion around #KSC.
#BlueOrigin, owned by Jeff Bezos, is generally considered the main candidate to someday challenge Elon Musk's #SpaceX. This is their "Orbital Launch Site" on Space Commerce Way. Their NewGlenn rockets will be assembled in the big hangar.
The road is being expanded from one to two lanes each way with a center divider. (About time!)
Exploration Park is across the street from #BlueOrigin. The idea was to create a commercial space complex on #KSC property but "outside the gate" so commercial tenants wouldn't require security badges. It's managed by Space Florida, a state agency.
You enter Exploration Park on Exploration Parkway. You turn left on NewSpace Way. "NewSpace" is the handy term those in the biz used to describe commercial space companies that don't rely on government subsidies to operate.
The Space Life Sciences Laboratory was build by Space Florida in the mid-2000s. It serves #ISS customers. You can see the current tenants listed in the second photo.
The new Kennedy Entry Experience at the #KSCVC entrance. Check earlier in this thread for the complete video.
The #KSCVC main entrance. I used to lecture in the Rocket Garden.
(Some day I might post an audio of one of those presentations. 😱 )
The Space Shuttles rolled out to the pad atop giant gray boxes called a Mobile Launch Platform. The three MLPs were originally built for Apollo and converted for Shuttle.
They're obsolete, so they're being scrapped. In the second photo, you see all that's left of one.
(The crawlers are still around. They're being used for Project #Artemis.)
The Vehicle Assembly Building as seen from an observation tower about two miles away.
(Fun fact ... The original name was Vertical Assembly Building, but was changed in 1967 when someone pointed out that future assemblies might not be vertical. 😳 )
Launch Pad 39A as seen from an observation tower about 1½ miles away.
Perhaps the most historic launch pad in the world (although the Russians would argue that Baikonur's Site 1 deserves that honor), it was originally built for Apollo, modified for Shuttle, and is now used by #SpaceX for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.
The big tower in the middle is new; SpaceX intends to use it for #Starship launch and landing, once operational.
Looking to the south from the observation tower to #CCSFS Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ...
Launch Complex is home to United Launch Alliance #ULA with the Atlas V and, probably starting in 2024, their new Vulcan rocket. (Yes, named after the Star Trek planet in honor of Leonard Nimoy's passing.)
LC-41 will be used by Boeing to laucnh its Starliner crew capsule to the #ISS, starting sometime in 2024, hence the crew access tower.
The back side of #SpaceX Pad 39A as seen from Phillips Parkway. (Most people call it the Cape Road.)
The new #Starship tower is to the left.
The liquid methane tank started life as the Apollo and Shuttle liquid hydrogen tank. Starship will use methane.
The crew access tower on the pad was originally the top half of an Apollo mobile platform. It was sawed off and transplanted for Shuttle. SpaceX modified it and added cladding for crew Dragon flights.
A closer look at Pad 39A. The trained eye can spot technologies from three generations of American spaceflight -- Saturn V, Space Shuttle, and now Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy.
Starting with Apollo, all orbital American crewed spaceflights have launched from here or 39B. That will change when Boeing Starliner is operational next year at LC-41.
A closer look at the old LH2 tank converted to liquid CH4 ... #SpaceX, #BlueOrigin, and #ULA Vulcan are all going to methane because they want to achieve rapid reusability.
Most rockets today burn RP-1, a highly refined kerosene. It leaves a carbon residue, so engines have to be cleaned before they can be used again.
Methane burns much more cleanly, so they hope for a faster turnaround time.
A closer look at the new #SpaceX #Starship launch and landing tower at Pad 39A.
Elon envisions a tower nicknamed Mechazilla that would use grappling arms to capture a landing Starship. (See the illustration on the right.) Presumably the photo on the left is the base for Starship.
I don't know what the tank is for.
A more panoramic view of Pad 39A as seen from a tour bus stop on Phillips Parkway.
The requisite tourist photo of the Vehicle Assembly Building.
This bus stop was originally built in the early 1970s to display remnants of the Saturn V program, and then for the U.S. Bicentenntial in 1976. Those artifacts were restored and moved in 1996 to the Apollo Saturn V Center. The location remains a bus stop with various items.
@WordsmithFL I have taken a very similar set of photos for that same reason at that same spot.
@SECRET_ASIAN_MAN We now have the only remaining "real" Saturn IB on the planet. The one at an Alabama roadside stop had to be demolished because it was rotted out and about to collapse.
We renovated ours a few years ago. They removed the connecting rings. We could see the old LOX and RP-1 tanks inside. Very cool.
@SECRET_ASIAN_MAN I found my photos from October 2018, when we opened up the Saturn IB.
@WordsmithFL I don't have that one. NICE!
@SECRET_ASIAN_MAN Back in the mid-1970s, when it was delivered to the visitor center, they'd cut "windows" in the stages to let guests see inside. The windows (probably just plastic) quickly fogged over, so the windows were painted white.
When we renovated the IB in 2018, we welded in metal to replace the windows and painted it over so you can't tell the difference any more.
@WordsmithFL I'll be interested to see how that works, considering that, in their initial test launch of a super-heavy, its exhaust blew its launch stand to literal smithereens upon launch, before disintegrating in mid-flight.
Kinda hard to land on a steaming pile of rubble.
@TwiHusband Which is why they're doing tests in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX won't fly people until the system is mature. That's how it went with Falcon 9.
The FAA regulates crewed flight. They just gave SpaceX a list of 63 action items before they'll license another uncrewed test flight.
There's a lot about Starship that leaves me skeptical, but FAA licensing and oversight isn't one of them.
@WordsmithFL I keep recalling that the Sea Dragon super-heavy was conceived to be launched semi-submerged at sea because of a) the noise, and b) it was judged impossible to build a launch stand that could hold up to the exhaust. From what I saw of the initial launch of Elmo's beast that still holds true.
@TwiHusband I know that SpaceX has made significant modifications to the Starbase pad since the last test flight. We'll see.
Personally, I don't see how it can launch and land without a flame duct, like every other launch vehicle with any oomph does.
But I never thought he'd be landing rockets and launching them again either.
Let him eff up Boca Chica, just not here.
#Space #SpaceCoast
Launch Pad 39B as seen from an observation tower about 1½ miles away.
This was the alternate pad for Apollo and Shuttle. It's now used for #NASA Project #Artemis. This is the OldSpace program, using a mobile launch platform on a crawler to bring the #SLS rocket to the pad.
#Artemis1 launched from here on November 16, 2022, sending an uncrewed #Orion spacecraft on a trip around the Moon #Artemis2, the first crewed mission, probably is early 2025.