08/05/01 - Air Force Space Command Familiarization Course, Patrick AFB, FL

After a couple hours of Minny Mouse bouncing around in the seat in front of me, I arrived in Orlando Florida.  And so did my luggage.  However this time, I knew ahead of time that there would be no pick-up, I would have to get a shuttle, as it was late, and the hotel for the activity was an hour away.  I loaded my gear into a shuttle and I was off to Satellite Beach Florida, right next to Patrick AFB.  Once I arrived I would find that they had deleted my reservation, which I quickly resolved, and then it was time to sleep.

In the morning I met with the activity staff, and we were off to Patrick for breakfast. After that it was over to Cape Canaveral to see a briefing by a NASA Instructor.  He talked about the Space Shuttle, and a lot of the physics and facts about it's existence.  From there we went to the shuttle maintenance bay, and stood directly under the orbiter Discovery as it was being prepped for an upcoming launch, we could read the serial numbers on the heat resistant tiles that lined the bottom.  It was a great experience.

After that we went to the Vertical Assembly Building where the shuttles are attached to the Solid Rocket Boosters, and the fuel tank.  It is indeed a vertical building. Up until a recent skyscraper, it was the highest point in Florida and capable of housing three prepped shuttles at a time.  From there we were off to the parachute packing facility where the Solid Rocket Booster parachutes are prepped and packed.  We toured the facility, and were shown a video of the process.

That evening we went to a local planetarium/museum and got to see a pretty amazing show inside.  I've been to a bunch of planetarium's but this was the most hi-tech I've seen. The night ended with a laser light show in the planetarium set to Pink Floyd...

The next day was the graduation, but before that was a beach party and picnic.  It was a shame that I could only arrive on the last day of activities, they seemed to have quite a full load, and I had missed most of the Air Force parts of the trip, but for one day's activity that wasn't bad, I can only imagine how cool the rest of it was.

Now I'm off to my favorite place, HOME!

Scott