On the way to the first stop we got a great view at the crawler they use to move the assembled shuttle to the launch pad and the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building). The VAB is the 3 largest building in the world by volume. It can fit 4 Empire State Buildings inside.
The first stop on the bus tour took us to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. They take you through a simulation of an Apollo mission launch from the control room. It was pretty cool, even the windows shook when the rocket ignited.
Here they have an actual Saturn V Rocket laid out on its side. This is the rocket that took us to the moon. The scale of this rocket is just incomprehensible. Pictures just don't do it justice. It just wasn't possible to get the whole rocket in one picture.
This is just the first stage:
First stage looking the other way:
They also have on display a Lunar Module and the Lunar Rover that they did earth testing with.
This is the Command Module that the Lunar Lander attached to.
After the Saturn V tour, you get back on the bus and head over the International Space Station Center tour. This is the place where they bring all of the components for the space station before they go up on the shuttle. This is the observation window over the floor where some of the modules are waiting to be launched.
They have a room setup with examples of some of the original ISS modules. Most of the modules were kinda dated, but it was interesting that they used standard rack configurations for all of the componets, even the toilet.
We got done with the visitors center and on the way out stopped by the Astronaut Hall Of Fame. Its a separate museum that is included with the KSC admission. Its full of Astronaut memorabilia and exhibits.
This space suite was used by Gus Grissom during his Mercury-Redstone mission. Grissom was one of the Astronauts who dided in the Apollo I fire.
Here is the one of the actual computers they used on the moon missions.
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