Nerdcation

[cookinwithgas]

So I went on this cruise with my wifes family and it was fine. However the bookends of the cruise were the real fun for me.

What I got to see before the cruise left Monday afternoon:

What I got to see in the parking lot of the cruise terminal after we left the ship Saturday morning:

[Chimera]

great timing

[Mvp2014]

so you are the nerd involved?

[NCstoner420]

Was this back in May?

[cookinwithgas]

wtf? No it was last week. Thats Endeavour in the VAB which is now open for tours, and the Mars Curiosity launch.

The other 2 shuttles were in the OPF buildings, the third is now (IIRC) leased to Boeing so the Endeavour is being prepped for delivery to a museum in Los Angeles in High Bay 3. The VAB was built to process 4 Saturn V rockets at the same time but I think the most it ever did was 2. The Shuttle System was dwarfed by the building.

Pad 39A still has the shuttle FSS and RSS on it, as there's been no monies alloted to dismantling it. Pad 39B has the Ares/Constellation launch structure built on it, but that program's been cancelled. It will probably be modified to handle more modular commercial launch systems at some point in the future.

[NCstoner420]

I took this as you watched a shuttle launch this past week and I know that they retired them. Getting to see anything launched into space is great, I lived in Cape Canaveral growing up and we would have to secure some items in the house on launch days.

[cookinwithgas]

It would have been pretty difficult to take a shuttle that looked like that on Monday and launch it on Saturday. The forward RCS is completely out, and the OMS pods are missing as well.

When I was a kid I always thought I would work there as an adult. My submarine pulled into the Air Force Station tidal basin for missle and torpedo loads a couple of times and standing topside watch, listening to the KSC weather reports over the loudspeakers on the pier was pretty freaking surreal when they ended with "This is Shuttle Launch Control"....