By 2 pm I had driven out of the Space Center and to the nearby Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Anxious to get a closer look at the Shuttle before it was launched on Monday I took the public tour of the Kennedy Space Center. The bus passed the Vehicle Assembly Building at 3 pm without stopping and ten minutes later we were at the Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry. This is a tower with multilevel open observation decks which afford panoramic views of the entire Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Closest, at 1700 metres, was the Space Shuttle Discovery on Pad 39A. Further away to the left, at 2500 metres, was the former Apollo and Shuttle but now Aries Pad 39B, recently surrounded by four tall lightning masts.
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| Pad 39B, as modified for the Aries programme, seen from the Observation Gantry. |
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| STS 131 on Pad 39A viewed from the Observation Gantry. |
At the foot of the Observation Gantry is the fork in the crawlerway which runs through the wetlands along the Saturn Causeway from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the two pads.
Continuing the panorama around to the left was the Apollo /Saturn 5 Display Building, the low buildings of the Shuttle Landing Facility (airport), the refurbished Apollo Saturn 5 launch tower that was nearing completion for the Aries 5 heavy lift launch vehicle, and the Vehicle Assembly Building that dominates any view within 20 kilometres of it.
Much further away, to the south, were the Titan buildings, similar in shape and function, to the VAB. In increasing distance these are the Solid Rocket Motor Assembly & Readiness Facility, the Solid Motor Assembly Building and the Vertical Integration Building.
Looking south-east the pads of Cape Canaveral were visible. Closest, just 3700 metres away, was Pad 41, with the Atlas 5 rocket that I hoped to see being launched in a few weeks time.
Mounted within the observation gantry was a space shuttle main engine in a position that one could examine it from four pi steradians.
Inside a shed alongside the gantry there was a multimedia presentation and a working model of the space shuttle launch pad.
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| Pad 41 with the Atlas 5 rocket bearing the Air Force's X37B spaceplane. |
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| The shelter on Pad 41 for the preparation of Atlas 5 rockets. |
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| A boy examines a model of the mate/demate device that is used to position the space shuttle orbiter atop NASA's Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. I saw the actual device later in my stay, at the Shuttle Landing Facility (the Kenndy Space Center's airfield.) |
See a panorama from Observation Gantry
See a picture of the Observation Gantry
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Text, images and audio Copyright to Andrew Rennnie, 2010