An Insider's Tour of Kennedy Space Center

When I first took up being an astronomer, I looked forward to all kinds of exotic travel; spending nights on remote mountain-top telescopes in exotic parts of the world. But most of the telescopes I use are in orbit (which is also pretty cool, but doesn't provide me with the exotic travel) so the most exotic places I've traveled to recently have been Annapolis, Long Beach, and Austin. However, finally, I'm getting my due perks!

I am now employed by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), an instrument built by the University of Colorado due to be installed in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the fourth Servicing Mission (SM4). This has been a long time coming; it was originally planned for 2004-ish and has slipped extensively and repeatedly since then. However, this time it looks like it really might happen and launch is slated for May 11th. In preparation, COS and various other hardware are being installed in the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis. People from the instrument team (with which I am associated) need to provide around-the-clock support while this happens, so here I am in Florida in the wee hours of the morning babysitting our instrument.

Brian with the Pad 34 launch ring. This is where Saturn 1 rockets (early Apollo) were launched.

The first in a series of bad places to stand photos.

After lunch, we were treated to a tour of Pad 39A where the space shuttle Atlantis is currently being readied for launch. Regular tourists get bussed to a viewing station about a mile from the pad where they can look through binoculars and long telephoto lenses at things. We were passed through several security checks and walked right up the long ramp to the launch pad. We took the elevator (the doors have to be replaced after every launch) up to the top (235' level) of the launch tower about even with the tip of the big, orange External Tank. To say it was impressive would be a drastic understatement. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

This is the best view the regular tourists get of Pad 39A from about a mile away.

This is the view we got (looking at the business end of an SRB).

The whole shooting match from the 255' level of the FSS.

We descended various stairways getting different views of Atlantis along the way eventually ending up ducking under her tail and wandering around on the massive launch platform itself.

I can't believe they let me up here!

Look! A Space Shuttle!

It's really tall from down on the MLP.

Since we were in a sight-seeing mode, we stopped off at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on the way back. It's hard to fathom how monstrously huge this building really is. It was designed to hold four fully-assembled Saturn V rockets at a time. At the moment, was housing one fully-assembled shuttle stack (Endeavour) in one corner and parts of the new Ares 1-X rocket in the opposite bay. The entire upper half the building is unused. The elevators go up to level 37, but the top of the tank is only level 19.

The VAB from the outside. The blue area of the flag is the size of a basketball court and the stars are as tall as I am. Those big doors on the side only open half way to let fully-assembled Space Shuttle stacks in and out.

Inside the VAB, looking up at the ceiling 525' above. I wonder if it's ever been B.A.S.E. jumped?

Endeavour from level 19 getting ready to go roll. Note the nifty wrap-around, retractable floors.

Despite my better judgement, I got up ridiculously early this morning to come see the Endeavour start the journey from the VAB at midnight. I missed the actual rollout, but got there in time to see a ghostly shuttle stack perched on the mobile launch platform perched, in turn, on the crawler headed slowly, oh so slowly, down the crawlerway. After taking some pictures, I figured the show was over and I might as well get down to regular (albeit very early) work for the day.

The ghostly sight of Endeavour rolling down the crawlerway at 12:30 am.	Endeavour arriving at Pad 39B five hours later.
Watching 9 kilotons of moving metal glide past was kind of like the begining of a Star Wars film. For size comparison, note the 15 passenger van in front of the crawler tread.	Brian and I, glad to have gotten to see this.

But this was not to be! At 5-something, Chris called up and invited Brian and I to go see the arrival of Endeavour. The theme for this trip is definitely taking advantage of any opportunity, so we dropped everything and hopped in the car. We got to Pad 39B just as the crawler was arriving. Like everything related to spaceflight, it's hard to describe how massive the combined crawler plus mobile launch platform plus shuttle stack is. Much to my amazement, they let us stand not more than 30' away as it ground inexorably past. It feels a lot like the opening sequences in the Star Wars films. It's pretty loud, but very, very smooth. The crawler tracks are pressed completely smooth and lots of golf-ball sized pebbles are shattered.

The cannister in the CRF, pre-rotation.

Obligatory gator picture. This one was about 100 yards from our office building.

After work ended at 8am, I drove back up to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge north of the Cape. I'd done a quick scouting trip there on Friday and done a lovely 2.5 mile hike on the Oak and Palm Hammock trails and checked out the visitor's center. Today, I came back to see the Manatee Observation Deck (there were, technically, manatees, but the were less impressive than I'd hoped) and do some running. I ran two laps of the Scrub Ridge Trail (1 mile each) before driving over to the Black Oak Wildlife drive (very scenic) to run the 5 mile Cruickshank Loop trail. The trail was mostly grass winding around the top of a mosquito control levy and there were numerous birds of all sorts. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot and I wasn't reacting well, so the last couple miles of the run were pretty stoic.

The lovely but short Scrub Ridge Trail in MINWR.

A tricolored heron in the MINWR.

Not a bad view from the office window.

The rare sight of two space shuttles at the same time (Atlantis on pad 39A, left. Endeavour on 39B, right)

One last view of Atlantis before the RSS closes

COS and I, both in our protective garments.

While we were in the PCR, they rotated the RSS to mate with Atlantis. If we hadn't been looking out the two, tiny windows in the PCR, we never would have known that the whole enormous structure was moving! The whole rotation took about 20 minutes. Then the inflatable seals were arranged and docking was complete. When we emerged from the PCR, it was surprising to see that the sun had risen and we were in a different place than we were when we came in. The RSS/FSS structure is a bit like Hogwarts with ramps and staircases moving around strangely between one visit and the next. Fortunately, they block off paths that lead to sudden drops (or so I was told).

Looking up the PCR. The big doors (upper left) will open once the shuttle is docked and the payload (silvery bundles) will slide into the payload bay.

Looking out the tiny windows in the PCR, suddenly we saw that Atlantis was coming closer!

After our shift, we de-gowned and spent a while running around the pad again. Chris is firmly of the belief that asking politely and being nice to security people will let you go anywhere and I am definitely inclined to agree. We spent a while talking to various workers and security people and ended up both on the roof of the launch tower and, the in biggest coup of all, in the White Room. We stood carefully in the back out of the way when a gowned-up worker popped his head out of the shuttle and said, essentially, "Hey, come look at this!".. And that was how we ended up with our heads almost inside Atlantis, having the commander's seat and zero-g toilet (not the same thing, by the way) pointed out to us. Most people are generally kind of bored and just pleased to talk to folks who clearly think this is all the coolest thing ever. I'm pleased to say that there are very few places on the pad I have now not been.

Me at the top of the starboard SRB.

Chris gets up close and personal with the ET at the top of the RSS.

The "last place on Earth".

Many thanks to the folks here for inviting me along on this truly once-in-a-lifetime trip. I tried to take advantage of every opportunity to see and do something new (always with camera in-hand for you my loyal readers). Still, it was really nice to come home. I look forward to watching the scheduled May 11th launch of Atlantis (2pm EDT, check your local listings).

Over and out.

Adventure Library

Neithernor