In article , says...

On 6/21/2020 12:09 PM, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article , says...

On 2020-06-19 7:46 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:
Wow, you actually saw the moon missions live. You must be an old man.

Not to mention witnessing, in person, the launch of Columbia on STS-1.

I'm 51, so don't remember Apollo at all. But I do remember STS-1 and
beyond. STS-1 was ground breaking for its time.

When I was in high school our family went to Orlando / Disney World /
Kennedy Space Center for a Christmas holiday one year. It was after
Apollo 17 but before Skylab. There was a bit of a lull at the Cape and
during that time, visitors to KSC got a tour inside the VAB. Something
they stopped doing once shuttle got going because of stacking SRB
segments inside. So that was amazing. The vertical height of the
building and the Florida humidity would combine to cause misting and
even a very light drizzle INSIDE the VAB I remember being told as cooler
air inside condensed water in the warmer air brought in from the
outside. An amazing experience.

I would have loved to have toured the inside of the VAB.

One thing I have done with my kids, that you can't do anymore, is tour
the restoration facilities at the USAF Museum. We got to see, among
other things, the Memphis Belle being restored and the Titan IV in
storage (waiting for the new building to be built). The tours were by
appointment only (sign up online) and there were other restrictions as
well but I can't remember the exact details. Since it was on the base
proper, I think you might have had to have been a US citizen, but I'm
not sure. I'd say the tour group size was not much more than a dozen
people, so it felt exclusive. Even though no pictures were allowed on
the base, they did let you take pictures inside the restoration
facilities, which was awesome.

They don't do those behind the scenes tours anymore, likely due to
security reasons.

Thanks,
Jeff


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