{"id":24699,"date":"2026-08-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=24699"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:35:32","slug":"the-kennedy-space-center-merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge-fl-aka-cape-canaveral-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/08\/27\/the-kennedy-space-center-merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge-fl-aka-cape-canaveral-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, FL (AKA Cape Canaveral) — Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monday, May 4, 2026 — In the early morning, Eric took a ride share to a rental car facility and rented a car. Then he went to Kosmos, picked up Christi and Keith, and we all set out for the Kennedy Space Center. It was located in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and was a 20-minute drive. We headed west on a bridge that took us over the Banana River, then north to the Space Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’d been once before, four years ago. Like Colonial Williamsburg<\/a>, it was only open from 9 \u2013 5 and there was more to see\/do than could physically be done in one day; it was recommended to get a 2-day pass to see\/do everything. Last time, we’d only had four hours, so we didn\u2019t get to see much. Eric and Christi wanted to see the rest of it. Keith didn’t remembered much, so it was almost like his first visit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we drove in, we were astounded by the size of the Blue Origin complex. We remembered being astounded last time, too. This is just a tiny bit of the complex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Kennedy Space Center parking lot entrance was just beyond the Blue Origin complex. We arrived at 0920. Parking was $15. The line to buy tickets was short. Tickets were $77 for 12+ for one day and $91 for 2 days. With sales tax, the grand total for three 1-day passes was $217.17. This was the entrance. You can see part of the Rocket Garden in the distance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once inside, we zoomed past the Rocket Garden and made a beeline for the bus tour. Here was another shot of the Rocket Garden, taken from inside the Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bus tour was probably the most notable attraction at the Center, and we knew the line could get long. We wanted to do the tour first so we could properly plan the rest of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While waiting in the line for the bus, we perused the brochures. We saw that there were two virtual reality (VR) rides that were included in the ticket price, but appointments were required. We remembered it being a long wait for the bus, so Eric ran to the closer of the two VR rides and made an appointment for 1410. The bus line was relatively short. We waited for 20-minutes, and Eric was back in plenty of time to board the bus. It was a surprisingly long drive from the Space Center to the first stop, called The Gantry at LC-39.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the ride over, a prerecorded audio track talked about how NASA worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep it a safe environment for the wildlife. The wildlife preserve was 140,000 acres and 1,500 species of plants and animals lived in it. They highlighted that it was an important sea turtle <\/a>nesting area. They explained that the rocket launches were so quick that there were no harmful effects. To prevent confusing the turtles, at night the Space Center used amber lights. The launch platforms had a large man-made sand dune that blocked the light from them so the turtles could remain in natural darkness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of the ride, the bus driver turned off the recording and told us about the various buildings that we were passing. If we read the map right, this was the Vehicle Assembly Building. If we remember what she said correctly, it was where the Artemis <\/a>rockets were built<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We also passed an odd looking ship and unique loading dock. The bus driver told us it was components for the Artemis rocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The bus came to a stop and we were told to exit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This stop didn’t look at all familiar to us. We asked one of the employees if it was a relatively new attraction and she confirmed that it was. Per the sign, this was a portion of a real mobile launch platform. Rockets were assembled inside the buildings on top of these mobile launch platforms, then the rocket\/platform was moved by a special vehicle to the launch pad. This specific platform had launched three Apollo rockets<\/a> — including the Saturn V and Apollo 11 — and 29 space shuttle missions<\/a> — including the first shuttle to the International Space Station and the final Atlantis mission. It was decommissioned in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were herded under the model engine <\/a>mounted on the platform. Once the last stragglers joined the group, they did a demonstration of what it was like to be under a real rocket engine as it was being launched. What you can\u2019t see in this video was a simulation on the sides indicating how far up the rocket moved as the demo progressed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each of the four stations had a giant menu of images that could be projected onto the sphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And we got to see all kinds of interesting simulations demonstrating various natural processes on Earth, such as weather and current patterns. We probably could have played with that all day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the sphere was the primary attraction in the room, there were some other smaller displays with interesting data, too. And there was a movie being projected on one of the walls — if we remember correctly, it was about how the data NASA collected was utilized in various ways, including farm futures trading. Christi found it hard to focus inside that room because, with the movie and multiple displays all playing simultaneously, there was too many stimulus inputs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, we went out to the platform… to be continued… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, May 4, 2026 — In the early morning, Eric took a ride share to a rental car facility and rented a car. Then he went to Kosmos, picked up Christi and Keith, and we all set out for the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,403,1,44,2,398,397,399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-florida","category-general","category-history","category-northamerica","category-tourist-activities","category-united-states","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24699"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24764,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24699\/revisions\/24764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}