{"id":24786,"date":"2026-08-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=24786"},"modified":"2026-08-30T21:22:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:22:47","slug":"the-kennedy-space-center-merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge-fl-aka-cape-canaveral-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/08\/29\/the-kennedy-space-center-merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge-fl-aka-cape-canaveral-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, FL (AKA Cape Canaveral) — Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

continued.<\/a>.. We followed the path to another building entrance. The first thing we saw when we opened the door was the bottom of the Saturn V rocket, which was diagonally mounted to the ceiling. A sign said the engines we were looking at were each 19 feet long, 12 feet and 3 inches wide at the widest point, weighed 18,500 lbs, and were fueled with a form of kerosene called RP-1 an liquid oxygen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To the left of the photo was a large double-door that Christi remembered exiting from after the introductory movie on our last visit<\/a>. The doors were shut, confirming in her mind that they’d changed how they’d routed guests. There were a few exhibits on the wall to the right of this photo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We went over to look at the first in the line, a Command Module (located under the sign that said “The Ultimate Road Trip,”) when an announcement came overhead that the movie was about to begin in the Lunar Theater, located under the nose of the rocket. We remembered from last time that the Saturn V nearly covered the length of the building. We figured we’d go in the Command Module later and hustled over to the theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The entrance was actually into a waiting room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Several TV sets played old news clips from 1969 about the upcoming launch, including clips with Walter Cronkite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A few minutes later, the doors to the theater opened. There was a stage in the center that looked like it was covered in sand, with a few small, scattered rocks strewn about. We soon figured out it was supposed to be lunar regolith (the moon\u2019s loose surface layer made of dust and rock). There were several small screens around the stage, and images were sometimes shown on the back wall of the stage. The movie was about the moon landing, with footage from the Command Center and footage about what the astronauts experienced. At one point, they dropped down a Lunar Exploration Module (AKA Lunar Lander), which looked similar to the Lunar Orbiter.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When the video ended, we exited the theater into a room that was basically a small museum. It had artifacts and information on several topics, including awards, very basic information about Apollo Missions 11 – 17<\/a>, and an odds-and-ends assortment of gear onboard. These were special gloves that could shield from extreme temperatures and a scoop and scale for collecting moon samples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was a collection of protective coveralls and space suits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was more information about the Apollo 13 “successful failure.” At the National Air & Space Museum in DC, we’ learned <\/a>that an oxygen tank had exploded, forcing the crew to abort the mission and return to Earth. The explosion damaged the service module and left them with a dwindling supply of oxygen and electrical power, and two of their fuel cells weren’t working. It was a life-threatening situation. They used the Lunar Module as a lifeboat and returned safely to Earth. While the mission was technically a failure, NASA believed the safe return of the astronauts made the mission a success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also the Apollo 14 Command Module<\/a>. It was named Kitty Hawk<\/em>, was crafted with more than 2-million parts, had nearly 15-miles (24-km) of wire, a control panel with 24 instruments, 566 switches, 40 indicators and 71 lights. It traveled 500,000 miles (804,672 km) to bring the three-person crew and 100-pounds (45-kg) of moon rocks back home to Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After we finished in the small exhibit room, we went back out into the main hall. There was a line of displays along the wall near the theater exit, including more space suits. There was a Lunar Tool Cart to wheel around assorted tools, such as the scoop and scale above. Since one of NASA’s primary goals was to understand the geology of the moon, the tools to collect samples were important and talked about frequently in the various exhibits. There was also a Lunar Rover. This model of rover was on Apollo Missions 15 – 17. In addition to what we’d learned in DC,<\/a> we found out it could carry 1,000 pounds and could go as fast as 12-MPH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We could also take a peek inside a replica of a Lunar Module cockpit, which had once been used for training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We also went around to the backside of the capsule next to the Lunar Theater entrance and looked into the window. It was cozy in there. We couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be trapped in such a tight space for 3-days on the return to Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were getting hungry, so we decided to take a lunch break at the cafe across from the Lunar Theater. Lunch was your standard theme park fare: mediocre food at inflated prices. But we had a great view of the Saturn V from our table in the cafe… to be continued<\/a>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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continued… We followed the path to another building entrance. The first thing we saw when we opened the door was the bottom of the Saturn V rocket, which was diagonally mounted to the ceiling. A sign said the engines we … 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":[45,403,1,44,426,2,398,397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-florida","category-general","category-history","category-museums","category-northamerica","category-tourist-activities","category-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24786","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=24786"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24872,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24786\/revisions\/24872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}