continued… There was a large exhibit on Fisher Space Pens, which have been on every manned space flight since Apollo-7 in 1968. These remarkable pens are retractable, pressurized, all-metal, work in zero gravity, work underwater, write upside down, work in temperatures between -30 degrees and 250 degrees Fahrenheit (-35 to 121 degrees C), write on nearly any surface and last three times longer than an average ballpoint pen. The pens are made in Boulder City, Nevada.
Next was a holograph of former astronaut James Lovell talking to us. We don’t remember what he talked about, but, given the nature of the medium, we half-expected him to say “Your our only hope, OB-1.” He didn’t, though.
At some point, Eric had separated from Christi and Keith. As Christi and Keith were nearing the Command Module that they’d skipped earlier, they noticed a group of people coming out of the doors that Christi had noticed on our way in. She said “I knew we’d missed the first movie!” and quickly pulled Keith into the room to see the introductory movie. The set was a replica of the Control Room during the first moon landing.
There were multiple screens. Usually, they all played the same clips simultaneously, but sometimes differing visuals on each of the screen. Various lights would go on and off on board on the left, and there was a similar board to the right that also had lights going on and off. Some of the electronics devices on the stage also would light up at various points in time. We supposed the goal with the lights was to help make the control room feel like it did during the stressful time.
The video was about the Control Room’s perspective of the first moon landing. Apparently, the original site where the Lunar Exploration Module was supposed to land was unsuitable, so Armstrong found an alternative landing location. They almost ran out of fuel and crashed while trying to navigate to the alternative spot. But they landed safely and the potential crises was averted.
When the movie let out, Christi saw that Eric had texted that he was waiting for them at the bus stop. The line to see the Command Module was long, so Christi and Keith skipped it and instead went to the bus stop. They all caught the bus back to the main Space Center campus. On way back, the bus driver told us about the special Crawler that NASA used onsite to transport the heavy components. The Crawler vehicle itself cost $1 per pound and weighed several million pounds. The photo that we’d previously posted was of a specially constructed road created to withstand the heavy loads. It had multiple layers, and to prevent sparking, only used rocks that contained no iron. Here was the view of the Kennedy Space Center taken from the road as we neared it.
After exiting the bus, the first building we came to was Space Shuttle Atlantis. The entrance was decorated with a replica of the real shuttle launch configuration.
We went inside and followed a long, gently sloping ramp to the top floor. There were signs all along the wall of the ramp. Last time we were here, this had been a long line and we’d read most of the signs. But today we zoomed to the top and came to a stop near the doors to the theater. We only had to wait a few minutes before they opened the doors and ushered us into a room with a large movie screen. We saw a movie with actors about the 15ish year journey between dreaming up the reusable shuttle idea and the first launch. They used professional actors to play the part of real NASA employees and contractors. The hair and clothes changed in accordance with the fashions of the years covered.
After the relatively short film, a different set of doors opened and we ushered into another room. We saw another film about the space shuttle in flight. This film was projected onto three of the walls and the ceiling.
When the film ended, we could see the space shuttle was behind a transparent curtain directly ahead of us. The curtain opened, and we walked forward towards the shuttle. It was a very dramatic entrance.
To be continued…