Drive 2010 - Day 12 - Drives - Beneath the Waves

Drive 2010 - Day 12

The first thing I did on the morning of the twelfth day was to visit a post office and mail another box of things home to myself. Oddly, the cost via US Post was almost exactly the same as the box I'd sent UPS - about US$50. So from Florida to Washington, at least, it seems there's no getting around paying about $50 to send things home, whether or not you bring them onto the plane as checked luggage.

Afterwards, I raced back to KSC to catch the first "Discover KSC" tour. I'm glad I found time to go on both tours, but of the two the first was far more interesting. My visit was just after the official cancellation of the Ares programme, and so a lot of this tour involved seeing launch pads that would now never be used, or which were about to be retired along with the Space Shuttle.

One highlight was the Vehicle Assembly Building, which was used for putting together the Saturn V rockets as well as the Space Shuttle "stack". It is gigantic to begin with, and given the flat terrain and lack of any similarly large buildings anywhere in the area, it looks unreal in the distance, as if someone has added it in post-production.

Tourist Photos: Discover KSC Tour

Space Shuttle/Ares(?) gantry

Launch pad rescue APCs

Launch pad rescue APC

Launch pad rescue APCs

The Vehicle Assembly Building

Space Shuttle landing runway

Astronaut-transportation trailer

If I remember correctly, the gantry tower was originally for the Space Shuttle, but had been modified for use with the (now-cancelled) Ares rockets.

The armoured personnel carriers are for use in evacuating astronauts quickly in the event of a launch pad emergency

The Vehicle Assembly Building is where the Saturn V rockets were readied for the Apollo missions (the segmented doors on the left side in the photo are just high enough for a Saturn V to pass through while standing up), and where the Space Shuttle was mated to its external tank and solid rocket boosters prior to the end of that programme. It is by far the largest structure in the area, and when seen in the distance gives the impression that someone has edited it into the scene like the machines in Contact.

The "astronaut trailer" was used to transport flight crews to the spacecraft wearing their flightsuits, although the tour guide said it was probably just being used for training on this particular day.

Date Shot: 2010-07-16
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon AFS-DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EDII
Filters: Schott BG38
Date Processed: 2011-03-05
Version: 1.0

Time was short, and I'd made sure to see everything else I was interested in the previous day, so I only took a handful of additional pictures after the tour before rushing to the airport.

Tourist Photos: Kennedy Space Center

Saturn IB

NASA T-38 Talon trainer jet

The Saturn IB shot looks somewhat unusual because I shot it with no filter in front of the lens on my modified D70. I had done this with numerous photos taken this day, in the hopes of discovering something interesting in the infrared. I did not. But this was the only full shot of that rocket that I took.

Date Shot: 2010-07-16
Camera Body: Nikon D70 (Modified)
Lens: Nikon AFS-DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EDII
Filters: Schott BG38, none
Date Processed: 2011-03-05
Version: 1.0

As I mentioned briefly already, gas stations are in no short supply in the Gulf Coast states, but the approach to Orlando International is something else entirely. I remember a line of them stretching for many blocks. One of them even had an automated carwash, so I could have saved myself some trouble trying to find one in Cocoa.

Date: 16 July 2010
Starting Mileage: 34077
Ending Mileage: 34151
Distance Travelled (Day): 74 miles / 119 kilometers
Distance Travelled (Trip to Date): 3962 miles / 6390 kilometers
Fuel Purchased (Day): 6.716 gallons / 25.423 liters
Fuel Purchased (Trip to Date): 137.226 gallons / 519.457 liters
Average Fuel Economy (Day): 11.0 miles per gallon / 21.3 liters per 100 kilometers / 4.7 kilometers per liter
Average Fuel Economy (Trip to Date): 28.9 miles per gallon / 8.1 liters per 100 kilometers / 12.3 kilometers per liter