A couple of weeks back I submitted registration to the NASA Social Atlantis event. Only a small amount of the people who registered would actually get picked. A few days passed and then I received an email from the NASA Social group saying that I was one of the lucky people selected for this event.
With little over a week to get ready, I made my reservations for a hotel in Titusville. I left for Orlando on Halloween. I didn’t get much sleep, partly because I arrived pretty late at night, and partly because of excitement to see what it was all about.
I arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex pretty early. The sun was just coming up. The first person I met was Robbie Adams. A few people milling about in the parking lot were all people selected for this NASASocial event. A few more people showed up within the next ten minutes or so and by then our host Jason Townsend came out and told us to go to the entrance of the Visitor’s Complex.
A registration table sat at just before the entrance of the Visitor’s Complex. Everyone registered and got some cool stuff including a commemorative coin, a NASA sticker, and a laminated post card-sized piece of paper that holds a piece of the Payload Bay Liner that was flown into space during the STS-125 mission. We also got some other things like two lanyards, a badge to get us special access, some entry tickets, and some parking permits.
I talked to a few of the other members of the group like John Ramsey, JR Hehnley, Cindy Chin, Ken Mason, and Jimmy Lin. When most of the group arrived, we introduced ourselves to the group. The Visitor’s Complex opened and then everyone went inside to the rocket garden area to take a group picture. After the group picture we headed to the construction site where we would take a hard-hat tour of the new building that will eventually house the Atlantis exhibit.
While walking over to the construction site, we saw astronauts Bob Crippen and Jon McBride. We heard introduction about the construction site and the building and then put on bright yellow vests and hard hats with KSC NASA logos on them. We saw the room where Atlantis will be housed and it was open, awaiting the rollover the next day. On the other side of the building we saw some of the pathway that is made of the rock that’s used on the crawler’s path. I’m looking forward to going back and seeing the building and its exhibits when they’re done.
We boarded a bus and drove out to the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. Other than seeing Atlantis, I looked forward touring the VAB the most on the trip. The VAB is the huge building where they prep rockets and put them onto the crawlers before they’re launched into space. The building rises 520 feet and is the world’s tallest single-story building. Looking up at the ceiling that was about 500 feet up a probably just as long was an incredible sight to see. We passed by a large stash of old equipment that they were trying to get rid of that reminded me of some of the stuff my Dad used to get more than 25 years ago at surplus sales at his company, Rockwell International.
The VAB is so big that my perception was a little fooled because as we first walked into the building, I expected to see Atlantis somewhere in the middle because it seemed like the shuttle should take up a good portion of space. As we walked further into the building, we turned and saw Atlantis in one of the smaller nooks of the VAB. Everyone rushed over and took hundreds of pictures. First we walked under the nose of Atlantis, and then we moved up close to the side and everyone posed for several pictures.
After the VAB tour, we rode on the bus to the a press building where we watched and participated in a live NASA TV show. We learned some interesting stuff about some new programs at NASA such as SLS, Orion, and the new Landsat satellite. Outside of the press building was the huge iconic countdown timer that is always shown on TV and in pictures during launches. The timer easily reaches ten feet tall. Everyone snapped several pictures of the timer and surroundings. From here we could see several launch sites.
We boarded the bus again for a special unexpected tour, the shuttle launch pad. As we were driving to the pad, we went alongside the path the crawler takes to get to the pad. The crawler is a huge vehicle with giant tracks that carries rockets in the upright position from the VAB to the launch pad. The path of the crawler is made up of “Tennessee River rock” and looks like a stone path. We passed by an actual shuttle engine. As we approached the launch pad, we could see the crawler path rise for quite a distance so that the crawler could make it up to the top of the pad. We headed back to Kennedy Space Center and our first day of activities was done.
On day two, I arrived relatively early to ensure that I didn’t get stuck in traffic. Hundreds of people waited at the entrance by the time I arrived. I believe KSC opened about a half-an-hour earlier than normal on this day. I went in and met some fellow NASASocial people at the entrance and rendezvous point of the rocket garden. We didn’t have a lot of guided plans for the day and were free to explore the Visitor’s Complex for a little more than an hour before we had to meet up at the bus area.
When we got on the bus, we waited for a few minutes before NASA Administrator and astronaut Charlie Bolden boarded our bus and talked to us about what NASA is up to. Charlie also answered a few questions and signed an autograph. We then drove out to Exploration Park for the festivities there and to watch Atlantis drive by.
Exploration Park wasn’t as crowded as I expected, although I’d have to guess there were a few thousand people there. I walked around a little with Tracey Larvenz and we tried to scope out the best location to take pictures of Atlantis. We wound up near where Atlantis would first enter. Not too long after, Atlantis appeared through the trees on a winding part of the road. We took a lot of pictures. Atlantis’ left wing even passed over our heads. After Atlantis passed, we, like everyone else, started following it. When it reached a bend in the road, it stopped and the workers put out “Shuttle Xing” signs. Many thousands of pictures were taken here.
I saw Kelly Hedgespeth and Lizzy Hannas and we grabbed some lunch. We headed back to the press tent to eat. The tent was more of a canopy. We were fairly close to the shuttle. A large group of NASASocial people were hanging out in the tent. The lunch was a pretty good and reasonably priced barbecue sandwich. People were sending out updates even when there wasn’t down time, but when there was down time, everyone pulled out their smart phone or tablet or computer and were sending out updates like crazy. We managed to get NASASocial and Atlantis to be at the top of the Twitter trending list on both the first and second days!
Kelly and I went to take some more pictures of Atlantis because at that time there was practically nobody near it. We managed to get a lot of the NASASocial people over from the tent to set up some group shots. One of the shots was of us with our hands up pretending to move Atlantis ourselves. Another one, which I couldn’t get into because I had to take the picture, was of everyone jumping.
We walked around a bit afterwards and visited the exhibits. I collected a bunch of cool stuff including posters and stickers that I know my son would have loved, but I left my bag full of stuff at the fireworks area later.
It was almost time for us to go back when they were announcing that they were moving the shuttle again. We took more pictures as we watched Atlantis drive down the street and make two turns. Our time at Exploration Park was great because we were there from pretty much the start until the finish and had plenty of time to see everything.
We boarded the bus again to head back to the Visitor’s Complex. We took a different route this time because Atlantis was blocking the route that we originally took. Everyone headed to the street viewing area. It was quite a wait before Atlantis came into view. A large contingent of astronauts led the parade, including Buzz Aldrin. Atlantis stopped a few times for pictures. Atlantis turned the corner and headed for its new building.
About this time, around 5 or 6pm, everyone was exhausted. It had been a long day. We went over to the bus area to find a good place to see the fireworks. I took some pictures of the fireworks. A fitting way for the NASASocial Atlantis event to end was having everyone watch as the International Space Station (ISS) passed over head.
Here’s some write-ups from my other blog:
From my other blog, Atlantis NASASocial Day 1
From my other blog, Atlantis NASASocial Day 2
Elliot,
It was great to meet you at NASA Social. You took some fantastic photos! I hope you had a safe trip back home.
-Alexandra
Nice to meet you too! Check out Alexandra’s web site for her fun travels from New York to Florida.
The Atlantis is the star of a 10-year master plan for the complex operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts. The center recently completed construction of a $16 million entry plaza, gift shop and restaurant and added closeup tours of the Kennedy Space Center launch pad and vehicle assembly building — areas that had not been open to the public in decades. In March, it opened the Angry Birds Space Encounter.