I Spy KSC

I spy... something Blue! 💙 

While we waited for Ma's work friend to pick up a badge at the Badging Office, we were a little bored. We thought about what we could do with our time. We love playing I spy!

Our 12 year old looked over and saw this shot. She asked to borrow my camera to capture this shot. The blue of the sky is reflected in the water. Atlantis is written on the side of the building. A replica of the bright orange External Tank and bright white Solid Rocket Boosters pokes out above the building. We can see the bright red, white, and blue of the American flag and the blue NASA meatball on the front of the building.

This building is a place of joy and celebration to my children. It houses the super fun slide that teaches you about the angles of re-entry. It has a climbing system high in the air that is a model of the ISS, where you can crawl in through the Columbus module and exit through a spacewalk. The building contains flight simulators, and the Shuttle Launch Experience where you get to ride in a shuttle launch simulation, passing through MECO and feeling like you are floating above the Earth - without ever leaving the building. And you can view the real Atlantis, beside a model of the Hubble telescope that it repaired. 

But to others, who worked on the Shuttle program, this building is a sacred crypt. It contains the old husk of their Bird on display, showing the scars and wear after its final re-entry. Children laugh and play around them, as they stand there remembering, paying their respects. 

They walk downstairs to the Columbia and Challenger memorials, and gaze on the twisted wreckage. They stand there in stunned silence as tears stream from their eyes. Sometimes a curious child looks up and asks one of these pensive people to explain. Their curiosity is always met with stories.

This is a place of contrasts. Of sadness. Of joy. It is a place of learning.

We love the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.