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Jennifer Merin, author of the column "Around the World with Jennifer Merin," has embarked upon such journeys as sailing on a Viking longboat, ...
Read more about Jennifer Merin.
Jennifer Merin, author of the column "Around the World with Jennifer Merin," has embarked upon such journeys as sailing on a Viking longboat, ...
Read more about Jennifer Merin.
Around The World: Fly Me To The Moon
Jennifer Merin
Fewer than 500 people have actually traveled into space.
The rest of us can just dream about what it would be like to push the envelope of adventure past the limits of Earth‘s horizons.
Or we can find ways to simulate the experience.
Fortunately, NASA is on board with this idea, and offers us the opportunity to take off with its marvelous Shuttle Launch Experience, a $60-million theme park-like ride that’s designed to take tourists on their own mini-journey into space aboard the space shuttle in orbit around the Earth. The attraction duplicates the sights, sounds and sensations of launching into space in the fully vertical launch mode position.
The fact that the Shuttle Launch Experience actually takes place at the birthplace of U.S. space exploration--Florida’s John F. Kennedy Space Center (www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy or 321.867.5000), near Orlando--certainly adds both cache and a measure of reality to the experiential ride. And, the reality factor is augmented by your knowledge that an actual team of astronauts and NASA experts shared their combined wisdom and experience with a group of the world’s best attraction designers to make this ride--which took three years to build and deploys sophisticated motions technology, special effects seats and high fidelity visual and audio components--absolutely sensational.
The journey begins with a very specific sort of countdown. First, you enter the Shuttle Launch Simulation Facility, in a looming six story building that was made to look just like the actual space shuttle facilities at Kennedy Space Center. As you ascend along the entry hall, you’ll listed to fascinating astronaut testimonials that prepare you for what you will be experiencing. Next, you’re taken into the heart of the shuttle operations area for a pre-launch briefing, where you, as a crew member, will be guided through a step-by-step description of the launch process. No less a personage than veteran Shuttle Commander Charlie Bolden is your guide. Then are you taken to the space shuttle’s cargo bay, where you--as one of 44 passengers--enter the crew pod and are tightly strapped in for the launch experience. Then comes the countdown and take off. And, for the next five minutes, you see, feel and live the launch--at a mind-blowing 17,500 mph. Once you’re ‘in orbit,‘ the shuttle bay doors open and you see the same awe inspiring views of Earth that only the astronauts have seen first person. You’re not actually weightless, as the astronauts are, but you feel very slowed down and remote. You can really imagine you‘re in space.
The Shuttle Launch Experience is so accurate in its presentation and so utterly thrilling, it makes similar attractions--including Walt Disney’s wonderful Space Mountain--seem, well, Mickey Mouse.
If you’re a theme park attractions aficionado, you’ll be impressed that the companies that comprised the Space Launch Experience’s A-list team of designers and engineers included BRC Imagination Arts (the company that also designed the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex's Apollo/Saturn V Center), BRPH Companies Inc. (which was the architect and construction manager) and Oceaneering (which was responsible for crew pod simulator fabrication). The ride’s concept designer and engineer was The Wheel Thing, Inc., while Technomedia Solutions provided audio, visual and show control components.
For the full space experience, it’s important that you also visit the other attractions at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, where you will meet real-life members of NASA’s Astronaut Corps, see actual equipment and personal memorabilia, step aboard the International Space Center and experience flight training simulators, too.
The Kennedy Space Center’s daily briefings give you a good idea of what’s scheduled for the day of your visit, including a list of the astronauts who will be at the facility.
Among the hands on experiences are the Astronaut Adventure, which allows you to suit up, strap yourself in and blast off and take the controls. This is an earlier attraction than the Space Launch Experience, and it’s less sophisticated in it’s presentation, but it’s still a lot of fun and gives you another take on the take off experience. The G-Force trainer lets you feel the pressure of four times the force of gravity and you can also find out what it feels like to walk on the moon or ride a rover across the rocky Martian landscape.
The amazing collection of artifacts shown in the Hall of Heroes and Hall of Fame impart a great understanding about the hardships, dangers and thrills of actual space travel and the heroic personalities who’ve orbited Earth and been to the moon. Among the items displayed are Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 Mercury spacecraft, the Apollo 14 Command Module, and beautiful glass etchings that are a tribute to the astronauts and their achievements.
Two IMAX theaters present dramatic footage shot by NASA astronauts during actual missions. Programs vary, but you may see “Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D,” with rarely seen NASA footage with live-action renditions of the lunar landscape to propel audiences nearly a quarter-million miles above the Earth's surface, narrated by Tom Hanks. Or, “Space Station 3D,” narrated by Tom Cruise, chronicles the challenges faced by Kennedy Space Center astronauts and Russian cosmonauts from Baikonur Cosmodrome, as they rendezvous with their new home in orbit 220 miles above Earth.
The Apollo/Saturn V Center, featuring a real Saturn V rocket, is a tribute to the men and machines that made it to the moon and back.
You can also climb aboard the International Space Station, and enter the full scale mock up of the Habitation Module to see where the Space Station crewmembers live, sleep and work. An observation room overlooks the actual processing bay where each Space Station component is checked out, processed and readied for the trip into orbit.
The Space Mirror Memorial, honors the 24 U.S. astronauts who gave their lives for space exploration in the tragic incidents involving Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle Challenger and Apollo 1, as well as the astronauts who died in training and commercial airplane accidents.
If the Kennedy Space Center whets your appetite for more space travel, you can enlist for a more intensive astronaut training course at the Space Academy at U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama (www.spacecamp.com or 1-800-63-SPACE).
The center is a simulated astronaut boot camp, with programs for kids of all ages. You can test your skills in training simulators and actually take on the varied responsibilities of different crew members in two different simulated space missions. Additionally, the center has a marvelous space museum and an IMAX theater where you can see space-related films.
Copyright 2008 Jennifer Merin
This news arrived on: 07/01/2008
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