it's one small step for Amy...

Yesterday was the second best day of my life!! The first being marrying Ollie of course, as without him the second probably wouldn’t have happened! Ollie took me to...THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTRE!!! When I was little all I wanted to be was an Astronaut (After I got over the fact I could never be a tomato of course) and it wasn’t until I was about thirteen that I realised it probably wasn’t ever going to happen. I just wouldn’t  be clever enough! Visiting the space centre though was a dream come true and I couldn’t have been more excited!

We hired a car and drove down to the island, crossing the giant NASA causeway to get there. In the distance we could see the outline of launch platforms and the giant building where they construct the rockets. As we walked down to the centre, speakers played out music that sounded like the start of a blockbuster space film. ‘Very Cheesy’ was Ollie’s comment. We queued up to buy our tickets and were very close to joining the ‘Commanders Club’ but settled for just a normal entrance in the end! Looking at the map we had been given I decided on our itinerary for the day. I’d never looked at this kind of map anywhere else before but I didn’t want to miss out on ANYTHING today! I found the place where we could meet a REAL astronaut and hurried over...of course I wanted to be first in line! 

Viewing the exhibits, we waited for the astronaut to arrive. They were all about the jobs NASA employees have to do and how many different people it takes to conduct the studies, build the rockets and design future space travel vehicles. Suddenly this pumping music started and a guy called ‘Ken’ bounced out onto the stage and started talking in a weird voice that was far to over the top for the ten people in his his audience! He gave a speech about how ‘we’ could be the future of NASA and the ‘endless possibilities’ out there for us to discover. His presentation was interesting but mildly ridiculous...especially the hand gestures that looked like he was dancing to the YMCA. A little confused I looked down at our map and realised we were in completely the wrong place! ‘Ken’ wasn’t an astronaut at all! Tugging Ollie’s arm we ran out of the room and over to where we should have been. 

We entered a large lecture hall and right at the front stood a man in a bright blue jacket in front of a slide show. Creeping over to a seat I felt like I was back at university; arriving to a lecture late and severely hungover! The man in the blue jacket was Mark Lee and he was an astronaut! He was also the guy who helped develop the jet pack astronauts use in space as a rescue aid if they become untethered during a space walk. Pretty cool! Mr Lee had been on four missions to space, on three of which he had been the Commander. His talk was extremely interesting. He told us all about his missions to repair the Hubble telescope and all the space walks he had participated in. His pictures were fantastic shots of him in space and he told stories about day to day life on a mission. I didn’t want his talk to come to an end! Everyone applauded as Mr Lee left the stage and we were all invited to go out into the lobby for a photograph. I literally ran and Ollie and I got to be the first to shake hands with Mark Lee and have a photograph with him. I couldn’t believe it. I had met a real astronaut! 

Next we decided to go over to the IMAX theatre and watch a film about the International Space Station. Wearing our bright red 3D glasses we sat down to wait. I have never been very good with 3D films as I am constantly pulling my glasses off to see if they actually make a difference! I’ve also never been very impressed with the quality of the 3D. However this experience was different. From the moment the film started I was totally captivated. Even the titles shooting out from the screen impressed me! We learned about how the ISS was created and then built in space. Who was involved in making the project possible and what it was like to actually live up there.  The film used some graphics, but mainly it was all real life footage astronauts had recorded during their time on the station. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a documentary so much! It was utterly brilliant.

Sitting back in our seats, seatbelt on, we were ready. The on screen guide took us through a few final instructions and then it was time to begin. Ollie and I were about to go through a shuttle launch! As the countdown clock grew closer to zero our chairs moved backwards so that we were lying horizontally, we began to shake, the rockets roared beneath us and 5...4...3...2...1 BLAST OFF! As we hurtled upwards the speed at which we were traveling pulled on our faces, we shook about wildly and the noise was almost deafening. Finally we broke the speed barrier, past through the atmosphere and entered space. The fuel rocket disengaged and our shuttle arced down so we were sitting upright once more. What an amazing experience! Apparently that simulator is the closest you can get without actually taking part in a real shuttle launch!

Leaving the simulator we both felt a little queasy. Above us was one of the shuttles they had used to take parts of the ISS into space. The NASA shuttles have now all been decommissioned (as of April 2011) as the ISS has been completed and they now want to design a new vehicle to take astronauts into space. Something designed specifically for their new missions. So I got to walk inside a shuttle that had actually taken trips to space! It was weird to think I was walking inside something that had been 200 miles above the earth, in a place I’ll probably only ever get to see in pictures or on television. It was quite hard to believe.

‘The Rocket Garden’ is a circular walkway, home to old rockets that are no longer used. They ranged from very old to some that were relatively new. I was able to get inside and lie in a tiny capsule that astronauts go in when they return to earth. I also walked along the platform that the crew of Apollo 11 walked along on the way to their rocket. I took some of the same footsteps that Neil Armstrong did! There is so much at the space centre that was used for an actual purpose and that you can actually touch. it’s not just a museum with a few artifacts behind glass windows. We went to the ‘Early Space’ exhibition and learnt all about space travel right from the start through to the present day. There were loads of news paper extracts and scale models to look at, as well as the opportunity to try and land a pod on the moon. Ollie managed it perfectly. I crashed mine straight away. Here I also saw Neil Armstrong’s space suit!

After taking a look at the giant Astronaut memorial we headed for the bus depot and the next part of the tour. The memorial paid tribute to all the astronauts who have lost their lives while in service. Although it was sad to see all the names written down and the pictures of the men and women, I couldn’t help think that actually the loss of life was relatively small. Space travel has its dangers of course but really when you think about it, it is worth the risk. Saying that I’m not sure if I’d dare to go, I can barely get on an aeroplane! On the bus we watched a couple of information videos as we travelled over to the viewing platform. We climbed up the steel tower to see the launch pads dotted around the island. They looked huge even from a distance and I could just imagine what they would look like with a rocket standing next to them. There’s going to be a launch in the next few weeks. The platform we were on was No. 39 and this was the one used for the Apollo 11 launch. More history we were standing on!

The last part of the tour was to the building that holds the rocket that took the Apollo 11 crew to the first moon landing. Inside the giant hall all the badges of each Apollo mission hung from the ceiling and I was able to learn about each mission. I can’t describe the size of the rocket but it was soooo big! We saw the capsule the astronauts came back to earth in and the van that had taken them to the rocket the day they went into space. There was also a real piece of moon rock that we saw and even touched and smelled! We were shown a video about the history of the Apollo missions. At the front of the theatre was the actual control centre used in the launch of Apollo 8. All the computers looked so old but just like the ones in the film Apollo 13! One of the astronauts, Jim Lovell, who went on the Apollo 8 mission and was also on Apollo 13, told us all about the launch.

Finally it was time to leave the space centre but on our way back we stopped at the Astronaut Hall Of Fame. Here we could learn about all the astronauts who have ever been sent on missions and see their uniforms and equipment. There was a G-Force test machine but neither Ollie or I could face the thought of spinning around that fast for two minutes! In space your blood moves unevenly to the upper part of your body, making your legs look super thin; like a bird. We stood in front of a mirror that should the effect and our heads and midriffs looked very puffy (Yes Ollie’s expanded even more!!).

Ollie had said I could chose one thing to take home from the centre so I picked the badge that the Apollo 11 crew had sewn onto their uniforms to mark the mission. I was very proud to be able to finally have a ‘space badge’! As a surprise Ollie had also bought me a ‘Space Commander’ pin badge...needless to say I was a very happy Amy! When it was time to leave I really didn’t want to. I could have stayed for hours taking in all the information. There was just so much to know and I hope I remember it all!

This really was a very special day, one that I will never forget. I’m so grateful Ollie made it possible for me to go and I think he even enjoyed it too!

25/10/11