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Stretching 72 miles down the east coast of Florida, the Space Coast is known for some of this country's most historical events.
"That's one small step for man, one giant beast for mankind."
It was here that man first ventured into outer space and eventually landed on the moon.
The Space Coast has changed a little since the Golden Age of the Space Race,
but a quick visit to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will put you right back into that glorious time
when United States persevered and slipped the surly bonds of Earth.
"Ignition sequence fast, six, five, four, three, two, one, two, all engines run next to the list of how we have a list of."
In today's episode, we'll visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex and experience history first hand.
The peaceful serenity of the rocket garden holds some of the full-sized launch vehicles
that powered the earliest Mercury and Gemini programs.
The gigantic Apollo Saturn V Center is the resting place for the largest vehicle built by man,
the powerful Saturn V rocket, as well as everything related to our visit to the moon.
And we'll also visit the shuttle launch experience at Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex.
It's the safest way to feel the thrill of being an astronaut without actually leaving Earth.
Then finally, we'll talk with two of NASA's best and brightest,
who will explain how studying the past will help push human space flight into the future.
So buckle up and join us as we travel through history.
Demenis 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1, 0, and liftoff.
The Space Coast is not exactly Florida's final frontier,
but it is the location of one of man's most crowning achievements,
space travel and the moon landing. About an hour east of Orlando, Florida,
the Space Coast includes the towns of Titusville, Cape Canaveral, and Coco Beach,
home to the world-famous Ron John Surf Shop. Ron John is the biggest surf shop in the world,
because when you visit the Space Coast, you'll definitely want to spend time on its beautiful
beaches, some of the best in the states. Coco Beach is best known for its surfing,
hosting contests annually for the Advanced Surfer, and plenty of surf schools for those just starting
out. But you don't have to be a surfer to enjoy the water. Taking in the local wildlife or just
relaxing on the beach is a perfectly acceptable way to pass the time. If reeling in Big Hall is
more your style, then you and your family can hit the deep waters and fish for giants of the sea.
A local captain will help you drop your line in a real hot spot.
One of the coolest things to do in Florida is to see some gators, the state's famous
ancient predator, and by far the coolest way to see them is by airboat. Half boat, half plane,
you'll skip along the top of the water at lightning speeds. Now you're experiencing Florida's
wetlands the way they were thousands of years ago. I'm touched by man.
If you're looking for a less adventurous and a much quieter way to explore the wildlife,
the Brevard Zoo is definitely the answer. You can get up close and personal with the giraffe,
or take a kayak tour and explore Florida's wildlife from the water.
But the Space Coast is known for more than just sun tans and water sports. Florida attracts
millions of visitors per year, and many of them choose to visit the Space Coast because of its
amazing history and attractions. So if you're visiting, you'll want to check out the astronaut
Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is an homage to the men and women who travel to outer space.
It contains more astronaut memorabilia than anywhere in the world, including NASA's early
space capsules and spacesuits. All this NASA history is just a warm up because a family trip
to the Space Coast wouldn't be complete without a visit to the main attraction, the Kennedy Space
Center. Coming up next, travel through history will explore the outer reaches of the Kennedy Space
Center Visitor's Complex, including a look at the Rocket Garden and the new Space Shuttle launch
experience. But first, the Space Coast has a really cool area code that has a little something to do
with what it's famous for. What do you think their area code is? Is it 954-321-407 or 305?
The answer after the break.
So what is the Space Coast's really cool area code? I'll give you a hint. It's rocket related.
Is it 954-321-407 or 305? The answer? 321, of course, you know, like a countdown for a launch of a
rocket. Okay, back to the show. Located halfway between Jacksonville and Miami on the east coast
of Florida, lies a 34-mile section of land where history has been made. Since the early 60s,
Kennedy Space Center has been the center of all U.S. space launch operations under the direction of
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is here at Launch Complex 39 that humans
have been able to break the bounds of Earth, orbit our planets and walk on the moon. KSC,
as it's called, is named after President John F. Kennedy, who famously vowed in his speech in
1962 that the U.S. would set foot on the moon within a decade. NASA endeavored to make it happen,
and on July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 made it happen. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex attracts
thousands of space enthusiasts every year. The facility is loaded with educational and
awe-inspiring relics of the history of American space exploration. Case in point, the rocket
garden located just inside the entrance is home to eight milestone launch vehicles that carry
man into space. Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launch vehicles are all present, as well as interactive
models of the space capsules. The sheer size of the rocket is truly humbling as you stand in the
middle of the garden and look around. The size was necessary due to the incredible amount of rocket
fuel needed to reach the speed required to exit the Earth's atmosphere. Rocket fuel alone
didn't get us into space. Behind every technological advance, there have been engineers, scientists
and astronauts pushing the envelope of human ingenuity. My name is Penn Tenbush and I'm a NASA
team lead for one of the potential new companies developing American spacecraft. What's behind me
right now is OB-104 Atlantis. We're right now getting that orbiter ready to actually be transferred
over here to a museum close by here at Kennedy Space Center and so we're just working on the
processing to save that vehicle and get it prepared for long-term storage over in this museum.
The space shuttle program flew 135 missions over the last 30 years and has been retired.
The shuttle is a capable vehicle that did it all. Big, carried a lot, did a lot with a lot of power
behind it and then it made it like a perfect vehicle for then taking this international space
station and building the station into low-Earth orbit because you're again taking a lot of really
big pieces and then assembling them in the lower-Earth orbit. The orbiter being as big as it was and
as flexible as it was, they could actually help build those components to eventually get us now
into a permanent presence in lower-Earth orbit. You can only describe the shuttle program as a
roaring success. So many important technological achievements from satellite communication to
medicine are a direct result of information gathered by astronauts and scientists in the shuttle program.
All these little things, it can take for granted the cell phone, DPS. If you think about the satellite
and the communication that's going on right now, the satellites that are out there, you don't really
think about the fact that, hey, it was our space program that made that happen. Another signature
attraction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex that's sure to excite any space enthusiast
is the Space Shuttle Launch Experience. This six-story structure mimics the actual space shuttle
facilities located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It's the closest thing to a trip on the shuttle
that you'll get here on Earth. With the shuttle program now retired, NASA is faced with the challenge
of defining their future. So what does the future hold for the space program? What's next for us is
that we need to be able to go back and now take advantage of that technology. We have this great
ISS, International Space Station, but how do we get our crews back and forth? How do we get lab and
testing continued on, you know, as far as at the ISS? You do that with having a capability to be able
to get up there up and down easily. Space travel has always been an American government endeavor,
but the future of space travel is in private industry. This means that instead of being funded by
taxpayers, private businesses will foot the bill. So we're hoping that we can take two or three
companies and allow them to have that capability to bring up crew. NASA is in very capable hands
with their talented engineers. So whatever the future holds for NASA, there will always be Americans
venturing into outer space. Coming up next, travel through history will talk with one of NASA's
chief architects as he explains what we can expect in the next 10 years at NASA.
Then we'll take a look at the largest vehicle built by man, the Saturn V rocket. But first,
during the shuttle's 30-year history, it has completed many successful satellite deployments.
The satellite probe Magellan was launched from Atlantis on May 4, 1989. What planet was it sent
to explore? Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, or Saturn? Travel through history once you interact with our
website, travelthroughhistory.tv. On the site, you'll find clips from past shows as well as
information on what's to come. Be sure to comment on our site and let us know what you'd like to
see on the show. During the shuttle's 30-year history, it has completed many successful satellite
deployments. The satellite probe Magellan was launched from Atlantis on May 4, 1989. What planet
was it sent to explore? The answer? Venus. The Magellan spacecraft was the first interplanetary
mission to be launched from the space shuttle. Its primary objective was to map the surface of Venus
and measure the planet's gravity. Now, back to the show.
A short ride from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex lands you at the Apollo Saturn
V Center. Inside is a real Saturn V rocket, an original that was held over from the Apollo program.
The immense size of this vehicle puts into perspective the kind of power that it took for us to reach
the moon. Each section of the Saturn V rocket is called a stage. There are four altogether.
When one stage runs out of fuel, the vehicle releases it to expose the engines at the next stage.
The empty stage falls back to Earth, but you don't have to duck and cover.
It will burn up in the atmosphere long before it could ever hit the land,
leaving the next stage to ignite and propel the vehicle further into space.
But before a rocket like the Saturn V or a vehicle like the Space Shuttle ever makes it
into space, people on the ground have to assemble it for flight. There is a team of people involved
with making sure that each section of a rocket or a vehicle like the shuttle gets assembled
properly and delivered to Launchpad in one piece. My name is Scott Colorado. I'm the
chief architect here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The vehicle assembly building is the
one of the largest buildings in the world by volume, total height around 520 feet. Each bay
is can handle up to about a 466 foot height. We can go up to about a 400 foot tall vehicle.
So that's pretty much the hard limit on this new vehicle, the Space Launch System with the
Orion spacecraft. The vehicle assembly building is one of the largest buildings in the world
by volume. It was built for the Apollo program and was originally called the vertical assembly
building. Its name was changed to vehicle assembly building to better represent the Skylab and
shuttle program that would soon follow Apollo. The VAB is so large in fact that sometimes it creates
its own weather indoors. This means that clouds can form inside the building,
causing trouble for the engineers and scientists that work to prepare the vehicles for launch.
To alleviate the problem, workers have to open one of the high bay doors to let the air circulate.
What we have behind us is the crawler transporter. It was built in 1965. We actually have two of them.
This one is being modified for our next program called the Space Launch System, the most powerful
rocket NASA has ever built. It was originally built for the Saturn V program, liquid rocket that
was launched in the 1960s to go to the moon. We converted it for the Skylab program and then
used it again for the Space Shuttle program for 135 missions and now we're about to use it for
the Space Launch System. And its main function is simply to pick up the big mobile launch platform,
at least that's what we call it on shuttle, which is where we stack the vehicle in the vertical
direction in this building. Once those big pieces were all put together, we're able to transport it
to the pad using this crawler transporter. The crawler transporter operates a lot like a tank.
It uses tracks to move along the ground. There are eight tracks total, two on each of the corners.
The crawler is so slow you could pass it on your bike. On its own, the crawler is just over five
million pounds, but it can carry an excess of 10 million pounds. It is now undergoing
modifications to be able to support the weight of the new mobile launch platform for NASA Space
Launch System. After the modifications, it will be able to carry around 18 million pounds.
The soft sandy ground in Florida could never support the excessive weight of the crawler
and its special cargo, so especially designed to crawler weight was needed. This crawler weight
is seven feet deep and is filled with Alabama and Tennessee River Rock, so the whole thing doesn't
collapse. Right now we're in the midst of taking one of these bays. There's actually four of these
massive bays that's behind me. This is called high bay too. Our function is to convert these bays
to whatever vehicle is needed in the future. One of the big jobs today is to convert the access
and all the utilities that go to the vehicle that formerly was a space shuttle. Now that the
space shuttle is no longer flying, we're going to convert that capability to support the Space
Launch System. We're also building a new steel platform going to weigh roughly about eight or nine,
maybe even 10 million pounds, big massive steel structure that will support that rocket.
The new mobile launch platform is being built to support future space travel using the new
Space Launch System rocket and the Orion Space capsule to take men and women into space.
I'm really excited about NASA's future for several reasons. There's a lot of possibilities,
and we've been in low Earth orbit essentially for the last 30 years plus, and now we have the
opportunity to go beyond that. It's been a while since we've actually expanded out beyond low Earth
orbit, so that's very exciting to me, the fact that we're trying to right now develop the technologies
that we need to to get us beyond low Earth orbit. Go back to the moon, go to Mars, expanding out
and trying to understand a little bit more of this universe. Let's, we have a look at 32 minutes
past the hour. Let's talk about 11. Did you know that Kennedy Space Center is also a wildlife
sanctuary? Because so much of it is underdeveloped. NASA employees often see manatees, alligators,
and even giant bald eagles basking in the glow of a rocket engine. More TTH after the break.
In a future episode, TTH will be visiting another Florida location you've heard of,
the Florida Keys. It's a chain of islands that extend off the Florida Southern coast.
Besides fun in the sun, the Florida Keys is rich in history and culture. There'll be pirate treasure
and shipwrecks, as well as colonial forts to explore. So, if you want to stand on the US's
southernmost point, be sure to tune in. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex has
no shortage of exciting things to do while you visit the Space Coast, but be sure to investigate
some of the expanded tours that they offer. Camp Kennedy Space Center offers weeklong spring
and summer day camps where young space enthusiasts can experience, imagine, and interact through
space shuttle mission simulations and even meet and talk with the astronauts. Of course,
you could also take advantage of the lunch with an astronaut program that gives visitors
one-of-a-kind experience to enjoy a meal and meet a veteran member of NASA's Astronaut Corps.
There are also several private tours that you can look into. Some may even take you into the
vehicle assembly building. Visit our website and click on the attractions link to check out more
about the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex. If you're really into space travel and you want
to learn more, NASA has a great website that will help you experience the history of spaceflight.
Just visit nasa.gov. You can also visit their YouTube channel to see exciting HD video from
previous missions and news about the future. That's definitely not all for us. We're going to be
visiting new cities each week bringing you some of the most exciting ways to experience this country
as we travel through history.
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