|
Author
|
Topic: TWA tours of Kennedy Space Center in 1960s
|
hlbjr
Member Posts: 510
From: Delray Beach Florida USA
Registered: Mar 2006
|
posted 04-16-2013 07:01 AM
   
Jon Proctor, a noted airline photographer and TWA employee, has a website with his 50 years of airliner/airport photography. One item I didn't realize was he was one of the original TWA tour guides at Kennedy Space Center in 1966! Here is his website with great info including the names of some of the original tour guides and some photos I've not yet seen. |
garymilgrom
Member Posts: 2030
From: Atlanta, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
|
posted 04-16-2013 08:12 AM
That is a fantastic site. What memories. Thanks for sharing. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3527
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
|
posted 04-22-2013 09:51 PM
The KSC bus tour back in 1966: |
gliderpilotuk
Member Posts: 3407
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002
|
posted 04-23-2013 03:50 AM
Great nostalgia. The glory days of diversity in aircraft design, when not everything had two engines slung under the wings. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3527
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
|
posted 05-07-2013 04:14 PM
Here is an aerial photo of the Visitors Information Center dated July 22, 1966. That is the same day the NASA tours began, according to the TWA article linked in the opening post. The aerial photo resembles the visitor complex photo in the article. |
YankeeClipper
Member Posts: 630
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011
|
posted 06-22-2013 10:22 PM
In the early 1970s, this was the caliber of tour you could have at KSC. Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan waves to tourists at the Cape. He is seated on the LRV 1g trainer, waiting for the tour buses to pass. He has the drill strapped to the lunar module pilot seat with the LMP seatbelt. Watched by a large group of tourists at the Cape, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan gets a heat flow drill stem out of the stem quiver during training.  Now that is what I call an Up-Close Tour! |
SpaceKSCBlog
Member Posts: 119
From: Merritt Island, FL
Registered: Nov 2011
|
posted 06-23-2013 09:26 AM
In May 2011, just before STS-134 launched, I was on a bus tour through the industrial area and we spotted Greg Charmitoff out for a morning run. He did, in fact, wave. Not that 99% of the people on the bus knew who he was. |
mode1charlie
Member Posts: 1236
From: Honolulu, HI
Registered: Sep 2010
|
posted 06-23-2013 04:51 PM
Those are some great photos! This would make a great book, by the way — photos of KSC back in the day, and now. |
Ronpur
Member Posts: 1242
From: Brandon, Fl
Registered: May 2012
|
posted 08-24-2013 06:15 PM
I just found my tour book my grandparents brought me back when they visited KSC back in the late 60s or early 70s. Very different. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3527
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
|
posted 11-13-2015 01:44 PM
In addition to the TWA bus tours, back in the 1960s and 1970s they even had public drive-through tours of the space center on Sundays. Not sure when those ended.From the November 15, 1972 KSC news release: Sunday drive-through tours of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center and Cape Kennedy Air Force Station are being suspended until after the launch of Apollo 17, scheduled for 9:53 p.m. EST December 6.Sunday drive-throughs of the NASA Spaceport and the Air Force facilities on Cape Kennedy - including the Space Museum - will be suspended on November 19, November 26 and December 3. Their resumption will be permitted on December 10. During this period, public tours of the Space Center and Cape Kennedy will be restricted to those operated by NASA Tours from the Visitors Information Center... |
Liembo
Member Posts: 699
From: Bothell, WA
Registered: Jan 2013
|
posted 02-08-2021 08:32 PM
I just acquired some TWA ephemera from the estate of a former KSC worker, who had a long career at the Cape with TWA and later on Boeing and EG&G, and was even the recipient of a MFA Silver Snoopy. Among some of the items in the cache were these TWA items I thought were interesting. There were letters to the tune of the Apollo 11 letter for just about every mission through ASTP.  |
advertisement