Day 3 - Serenity Now

Day 3 we took a break from the Disney parks to travel east to the Kennedy Space Center. We took a 2.5 hour bus tour around the launch complex and was an amazing site to see. My feet never enjoyed a bus ride more than this. The kids enjoyed seeing several wild alligators all over the place in the ditches. Space Shuttle Discovery was out on the launch pad and preparing for lift off in a few weeks.

We learned many interesting facts. Like the safest distance to view the lift off is 3 miles out. If you were to stand just 400 ft. away, you would be instantly killed from the heat. At 800 ft., your body would explode from the sound waves hitting you. A few of the adults and Jacob took a launch simulator ride. That was awesome. We went into the simulator with about 30 seats and strapped in to our seats. With large screens in the front, we were taken through the countdown procedure and were tilted backwards to a 90 degree angle looking straight into the sky. During lift off, the simulated violent turbulence and forces were incredible and when the last external fuel tank was let go, it felt just like a peaceful glide in space….and then all the lights came on with a women’s voice telling us to exit to our right and to watch our step. Watch my step?...I’m still trying to just stand up.

Another interesting moment was hearing about John Aaron. A distinguished NASA engineer who was credited for saving the ill fated Apollo 13 mission that Tom Hanks flew on. He was an EECOM with a responsibility for the electrical, environmental and communications systems on board the spacecraft. But a little known fact was that just four months earlier John Aaron had saved the Apollo 12 mission when, during launch, the rocket was struck by lightning—twice. The second strike knocked the CSM's fuel cells off line, sent the guidance system spinning, and scrambled telemetry to the ground. With warning lights blazing and alarms sounding, it looked like the crew would have to abort the mission, just seconds after liftoff.

Aaron was in the EECOM's seat for the launch, and as he watched the scrambled data ripple across his console, he was suddenly reminded of a ground test he had seen a year earlier where an electrical malfunction had caused a similar problem. The crazy pattern of the data on his console was something only he recognized. And, thanks to hours of research he'd put in after the ground test, he knew how to fix it. He uttered the terse command, "Set S.C.E. to Aux," to his flight director, Jerry Griffin. Griffin, like everyone else in mission control, had no clue what that meant. Nevertheless, trusting in his EECOM, Griffin ordered the command to be passed up to the crew immediately. The corresponding switch was flipped on board and valid telemetry was restored. With valid data, Aaron could see that the fuel cells were off line, and with a second command to reset the cells, Apollo 12 was on its way to moon. The incident cemented Aaron's reputation as a "steely-eyed missile man."

I was struck by this story of how the Lord still uses people in times of crisis. John was the right man at the right time with the only answer to the Apollo 12 crisis and he stepped up.

After the NASA tour, we moved on down to Coco Beach. The kids had never seen ocean water as far as the eye can see and had a blast. They were not impressed with the taste of the salty water though. The sand and cold water felt good to the feet.

Tomorrow another park…Epcot.