We also walked around the site of the launch tower where the Apollo 1 fire occurred. This was the one facility we toured that had the appearance of being frozen in time and not a reconstructed prop from a museum. We walked through the blockhouse used to control some of the early manned flights, complete with its Burroughs computer, wiring, consoles, blast doors, etc. After lunch we again boarded a bus for the “Cape Canaveral: Then & Now” tour, for which we had to have our photo IDs checked and recorded, presumably since the tour is largely on the US Air Force’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. We returned to the KSC visitor’s center touring more of the exhibits there and watching the other 3D IMAX movie, and had the launch experience again. Fortunately, this launch was put off for more than a week as announced the next day. The shuttle launch had already been moved from Thursday to Monday because of this rocket, and if this rocket would be ready for another attempt on Saturday or Sunday, the shuttle would again wait. We headed back to the hotel, not sure how this scrub would affect our chances of seeing a shuttle launch. We heard that the launch was scrubbed via the scanner, due to technical issues with the rocket. I had my radio scanner with me, listening to the Coast Guard announcing the area restricted from boats, and also aircraft dispatched to patrol the area. Back to the main visitors center, we watched a 3D IMAX film, “rode” the Space Shuttle Launch Experience, and called it a day.įriday night we drove out to Port Canaveral and parked along the road (where many others were also parked) to see the launch of an Atlas V rocket containing a commercial satellite payload. We then took the bus to the ISS building and were able to look down on the clean room used for processing space station modules – though it was difficult to tell what one was looking at. It’s crazy huge – really amazing to see the thing in person. Our next stop was the Apollo / Saturn V Center where we walked under and around a real Saturn V rocket laid over horizontally. Checked in, got food, and walked the beach a bit. The shuttle to the off-site Hertz location was speedy, we got our car, and made our way on the Beachline Express to Cocoa Beach at which point it was dark. I’d very much like it if GPS worked better inside of aircraft. I was only able to get GPS lock very briefly after leaving MDT. We were above the cloud deck much of the time during both flights. We were a bit late arriving in CLT, it was raining, and there wasn’t much waiting around for the next flight. We had an expensive and slow lunch before our flight to Charlotte, NC. Airport security at Harrisburg was relatively speedy, though they did decide to perform some kind of chemical test on my shoes. The PA turnpike had next to no traffic from Blue Mountain to Harrisburg East, though had ludicrous 40 mph speed limits posted for much of the distance. Some people want photos, so I’ll give that a try. The Florida expedition was from 11/11 to the early morning of 11/17 and was very successful.