T-42 and Counting!!
04 April 2010 | Cape Canaveral
We crossed the Barge Canal into the Banana River on Friday morning. It was a beautiful trip shared with manatees and dolphin. Poor Murphy was having a heart attack over all the monsters in the water. We docked at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club. It's a small club, smaller than RRYC, and is struggling with an aging and dwindling membership. However, they are trying to improve the facilities and loosen things up a bit to hopefully attract new members.
Saturday we were treated to a n exclusive bus tour, arranged by my sister, of Kennedy Space Center. We were one of about 13 guests on the bus and had two NASA tour guide hosts. The tour included a fairly close view of the waiting shuttle and the visitor centers here are something everyone should see. The Apollo display takes you through a launch with the original control room laid out in front or you and then a landing on the moon. For those of us that grew up watching these events, it was emotional to see the original notebooks of instructions spread out on the rows of control desks as if they'd been used only yesterday. I think I may need some kleenex when that launch goes off Sunday morning,
Saturday evening, Cindy took us to a vendor reception that was quite nice. An astronaut from the late nineties was there and in his remarks mentioned that he was in the space station when it was hit by a Russian spacecraft and lost its air pressure. I remember that, so it was pretty neat to meet the man that was there.
We're going to be early tonight as we have to catch the bus to KSC at 2:00 AM Monday morning. We get to watch the launch from the NASA "administrator's" balcony. Should be something.