Rating:
* * * * *
Time: 90 minutes
Kelly says: In the footsteps of the astronauts
In a sense NASA Up Close begins where the KSC Tour leaves off, offering you extra special access to places you glimpsed from afar on the main tour. With the expert guidance of a space program expert who is a gold mine of little known facts, you get to visit the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF). From a long, glass-walled observation platform you can watch elements of the space station being readied in ultra-clean conditions for eventual transfer into space. It can take six months or more to get these massive building blocks prepped for their journey into orbit.
There is another stop near Launch Pads 39A and B at a special seaside viewing platform that offers one of the best photo ops to be had at KSC. With the towering pads to one side and the Atlantic Ocean to the other, you’ll get a terrific view of the rotating service structure that swings away for the actual launch, the flame trench that harnesses and channels the inferno created by the shuttle’s rockets, and the massive lightning rods that protect the shuttle from Florida’s stormy weather.
You also get closer to the Vehicle Assembly Building. It looks immense from the vantage point offered on the KSC Tour, but now it is positively awe-inspiring. Every mission begins with an inch-by-inch journey on the Crawler Transporter, which you’ll revisit on this tour. And since all space missions must come to an end, the Shuttle Landing Facility looks after the longest and widest landing strip in the world, giving returning astronauts plenty of margin for error because the gliding space shuttle gets only one shot at landing. The tour ends at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, described above. From there, you can take a bus straight back to the Visitor Complex, or proceed to the International Space Station Center.
Note: If you take this tour, you may want to skip the main KSC Tour. Yes, you will miss the LC-39 Observation Gantry, but you will get a closer look at pads 39A and B on this tour.
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