Monday, August 15:
NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
Cape Canaveral
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There may be no better destination on earth where the wonders of science, technology, engineering and mathematics are on display from the moment you arrive! The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is a STEM student’s dream.
Traveling across old Florida wetlands and seeing alligators for the first time, the group arrived at the Kennedy Space Center just in time to meet a space-suited astronaut! And, that was before they went through the KSC gates! Standing amidst the historic rockets and capsules in the Rocket Garden, the group listened to a tour guide describe the history of the US space program while sitting inside the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules was just the start of what they would experience over the next 10 hours. They immersed themselves in the hands-on experience of the Space Shuttle Atlantis complex, crawled through International Space Station, experienced a launch in a simulator, used the shuttle arm to deploy a satellite, and piloted the shuttle. |
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Leaving the Visitor Complex by bus, the group stopped near the historic Vehicle Assembly Building, where the Artemis 1 was getting final preparations before its upcoming unmanned Moon mission, and even caught a glimpse of the rocket through a VAB door! They learned that VAB has the highest single-storey door in the world, and about the special rock used to pave the road for the Crawler, which moves the assembled rocket to Launch Complex 39B and 39A.
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Atop an observation tower near the launch site, our KSC tour guide Bart (a retired high school psychologist) asked who these young people were asking the excellent questions! Once he learned about Tech Talent, and that these students had never seen the ocean, he took the group to a special camera observation deck that overlooked the launch site – and the Atlantic Ocean! The group moved on to the Apollo/Saturn V spaceflight operations center (where they experienced the launch of Apollo 11), touched moon rocks, space gear, and marveled as they stood under the 363 foot-long Saturn V moon rocket. The day ended at the Mission to Mars, where they learned about the Mars Rovers, played interactive games and simulators, and saw in detail NASA’s current space missions to the Moon, and to Mars.
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