{"id":24906,"date":"2026-09-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=24906"},"modified":"2026-09-18T00:01:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T00:01:53","slug":"the-kennedy-space-center-merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge-fl-aka-cape-canaveral-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/09\/18\/the-kennedy-space-center-merritt-island-national-wildlife-refuge-fl-aka-cape-canaveral-part-7\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, FL (AKA Cape Canaveral) \u2014 Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

continued.<\/a>.. Once we reached the next floor down, we went directly to the flight simulator, which we remembered<\/a> as the funnest activity at Kennedy Space Center. The area where people lined up was reminiscent of Space Mountain at Disneyland in that it was decorated to look futuristic and visually interesting. The walk through the line up area seemed to go on forever, but we were delighted when we got to the front and found that there was almost no one in line ahead of us. It took a long time for the doors to open and the staff to usher us into the next room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were directed to stand in rows, with each person standing on a mark on the floor. Once everyone was situated, a video played. It explained that the simulator had been part of the Space Shuttle astronaut training program. It replicated the various conditions that may be encountered in outer space, and had been designed to prepare them for various scenarios they would encounter during their flights. The video explained what kinds of motion to expect while we were inside the simulator, along with a quick overview of what exterior conditions caused the various types of motion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then a set of doors opened and we were ushered into the next room, where we were again instructed to line up into rows, standing on the marks on the floor. We waited for a few minutes, then another set of doors opened. This time, it was the simulator. Since we were already lined up, the group shuffled smoothly and quickly into the appropriate seats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The simulator ride lasted less than 5-minutes, and it was just as fun as we’d remembered it to be. The simulator was remarkable back when it was invented and its history made it a unique and special experience. But nowadays there were many similar simulation rides at theme parks, so it felt like another typical fun ride. As we’ve said before, technology invented for space had had tremendous impact on life of Earth<\/a> in countless ways. Who would have guessed that NASA would also impact theme park rides?!?!? All in all, from the moment we’d walked into the line up area to the moment we exited the simulator, it had taken 30-minutes. And that was with nobody in line ahead of us. We were glad we went on it, but given how long the wait was versus how long the ride was, we probably wouldn’t go on it again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, it was 1405 and our Hyperdeck: Mission Moon VR appointment was for 1410<\/a>. We literally ran out of the Space Shuttle building<\/a> and over to the building that had the VR Hyperdeck. We arrived a couple minutes late and were worried that they’d reject us, but there were several VR pods and, to our surprise, most were unoccupied. We were ushered into a pod, which was basically a square booth. Each pod could hold up to four people, one in each corner. A staff person helped us put on the tracking gear and headsets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An automated recording explained this was both a ride and a video game in one.\u00a0Using special spears that shot out like taser guns, our task was to grab as much blue and green ore as possible while avoiding the red ore. When the ride started, we were on top of the Shuttle launch platform in a moon mining base<\/a>, then we accidentally fell into an autonomous mining cart that started running fast along a the track. The VR experience was incredible: even though we were standing still on a platform, it felt like we were on a wild roller coaster ride with lots of twists, turns, and drops, including wind and sound effects. We couldn’t get over how realistic it felt! This was the new winner for best activity at the Space Center, and was probably one of the funnest rides we’ve ever been on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the ride ended, we were tempted to do it again since there were slots available. But we only had a couple hours before the Space Center closed and we wanted to see more of the exhibits. We went to the building called the Gateway Complex to see if we could do the free VR ride in that building. We made a beeline for what we thought was probably the VR ride. It was a single pod and we were told it was booked for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We looked at the rest of the exhibits on the ground floor of the complex. The theme was about what the future was going to be like once deep space travel became a part of ordinary life. There were displays about the work that NASA and the private space companies that they partner with were currently doing to help make this vision a reality. There was a model of the Space Launch System, the first deep space rocket for human space since the Saturn V rocket in the Apollo program<\/a>. It was first tested on a mission called Artemis I. It launched on November 16, 2022 from here (Kennedy Space Center) and orbited thousands of miles beyond the Moon. At some point that wasn’t clear to Christi, the Orion capsule (the white part at the top of the rocket) separated from the rest of the rocket. The Orion returned to Earth on December 11, 2022, splashing down off the coast of San Diego. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Orion was large enough to carry four crew and necessary cargo to the moon and eventually to Mars. It sounded like it was much more comfortable than the old Apollo capsules <\/a>had been, with sleep hammocks, a galley (kitchen), exercise machines and a toilet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be continued…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

continued… Once we reached the next floor down, we went directly to the flight simulator, which we remembered as the funnest activity at Kennedy Space Center. The area where people lined up was reminiscent of Space Mountain at Disneyland in … 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-24906","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\/24906","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=24906"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24956,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24906\/revisions\/24956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}