18 May - Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and Spaceflight Tour, Atlas 5 Launch, Dinner with the Walker's

 What an awesome day!  We did the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and Spaceflight Tour which was over four hours, then we came back and grabbed lunch to go and headed for the beach to watch the Atlas 5 rocket launch.  Later we would head over to our friends George and Donna Walker's house for dinner.  

So lets start with the tour.  We departed the Exploration Tower in Cape Canaveral just a couple miles west of our campground.  We were pleased there were only six on our tour. The tour van was really nice with large, clean windows and an over-the-top tour guide named Shelley!  I doubt there is anyone who could have done a better job than her.  She was a former school teacher and extremely knowledgeable about everything Cape Canaveral, down to the detail.  

Exploration Tower, our rally point today but closed due to COVID

Our tour van and Shelley, our guide.

Inside our van with an overhead video display controlled by Shelley.

Just a few miles north we arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  Keep in mind the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center are apparently two different operations.  We would find out later that the only way we could have seen the sites we did today including the lighthouse were to take this tour.  Otherwise this entire facility is off limits, even with a military ID card, unless you are assigned here and have a need to be here.

I took a hundred or so pictures today and won't bore you with them all, but will select a few here that might be interesting.  

The first stop was the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, Doreen's favorite part.  The lighthouse here was relocated in 1894 and extended because they discovered it was built in 1868 in the wrong location and was built too short to be effective. The panels were all numbered with roman numerals.  The lighthouse almost seems out of place since it is in the middle of Cape Canaveral, but the lighthouse was here first.  Because the land had already been acquired, the space functions of Cape Canaveral are here.  The tour was one of the best we have seen because of all the volunteers.  It was originally built in New York and transported/assembled here.  It is a steel structure with a brick liner for support.  We were only able to climb to the sixth floor, the remainder was closed. 

Cape Canaveral Lighthouse with the oil house in the forefront and the keepers quarters to the left

Looking into the stairwell

Inside the base of the lighthouse

The original oil house

 

The keeper's quarters which is now the gift shop.

Kind of a neat shot with the sun highlighting the lighthouse.

After the lighthouse tour we boarded the van and traveled all over Cape Canaveral touring the various launch sites, called launch complexes. They have done a great job preserving history here as each launch complex tells a story. Some pictures:

One of the iconic viewing stands we saw on TV fback in the 60's and 70's.  Wives and VIP's occupied these seats

One of the domed concrete blockhouses where the launch was initiated and viewed with periscopes like a submarine.  20 feet thick walls.  We were able to use the periscopes.

In 1964 this monument was placed including a time capsule that will be opened in year 2464

Launch complex 14 where John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper launched.

John Glenn's parking place

Entrance to the blockhouse

The rockets launched from Launch Complex 14

The door to access the block house

Inside the block house.  The walls are over 20 ft thick.  The equipment is gone and the room is used for ceremonies, etc

One of launch facilities

Diverters that deflect the engine exhaust sideways away from the concrete

Periscopes on top of the block house to view the launches back in the day.

Things have really changed here in the past few years. It used to be NASA was the only ones that launched anything here. The primary contractors are 

- Space X, owned by Elon Musk.  His overarching goal appears to be to get to Mars.  He has facilities in southern Texas and other locations.

- United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.  They are launching the Atlas V rocket later today for the military.  

- Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame.  Our tour guide joked that you can purchase a ride on one of the Blue Origin rockets for a mere $2,600,000.  Just put it on your Amazon Prime card!  This is happening in July from what we understand.

- Relativity 

- Boeing

- Virgin Galactica

One of the Space-X rocket recovered boosters.  Inside the building we could see one that had been refurbished and is ready to use.

It was interesting listening to our very knowledgeable tour guide.  You can see on the launch schedule they are launching rockets every couple weeks throughout the summer.  We are so fortunate to be here to see the launch that will happen later today.  https://spacecoastlaunches.com/launch-list/

Again, we stopped at so many of the historic launch complexes I cannot begin to describe them all here, but I will post a few more pictures of the last one we stopped at, Launch Complex 26.  This is also the Air Force Space and Missile Museum.  It is from this launch complex our very first satellite was launched in 1958 - Explorer 1

Walking in the door we were greeted by one of my teen age heart throbs.  Jeannie!  Ok, so don't even go there!!  And you wonder why I joined the Air Force!  Well, I never did discover a Jeannie in a bottle on the beach, but I sure did enjoy watching the show!

This museum also highlighted the animals in space program, called "Monkeynauts" and "Astrochimps".  Some of us are old enough to remember them launching chimpanzee's into space. 

 

The museum was full of "comm-geek" stuff, I mean electronic artifacts of the early space program. This area obviously interested me since I spent nearly my entire career working on electronic devices. This equipment pre-dated me however!  

Multiply this by thousands and it would not even come close to the computing power of my iPhone 12!

I was disappointed there was just a small corner of the museum where they attempted to honor women's contributions to the space program.  It just seemed trivial and, "oh by the way..."  Maybe my impression was wrong.  I can only hope when we visit the Kennedy Space Center museum they is a much more robust area for this where they can do it right, in a fully public setting...

.Heading towards the gate we passed a bay where one of Elon Musk's Space-X recovery vessels was docked.  They land the booster rockets on here and reuse them.  

After returning from the tour we grabbed a quick lunch and took it with us on the beach to watch the ULA Atlas V launch. This rocket will power a Space Based Infrared System into geosynchronous earth orbit.  The launch occurred as planned.  

This is a web photo of the rocket being launched today.   (Image credit: United Launch Alliance)

We were not watching the exact spot where it launched from so it took me a second to get the cell phone camera adjusted, and the video I took was too large to post here, but here are a couple pictures:

Here we will try a clipped video.  I had to remove parts of it because it was too large.  Hope it loads for you:

We finished off the evening having a fantastic dinner with George and Donna Walker, our great Alliance friends we have mentioned previously.  They just live a mile or so from our camping spot here at Jetty Park.  We thoroughly enjoyed seeing them again and breaking bread together!  Unfortunately I was "asleep at the wheel" and did not get any pictures.  Thanks George and Donna for your hospitality!  We will see them again in August at the Alliance Rally in Elkhart IN.