posted 07-20-2012 09:39 AM               

Next stop, the launch pad: NASA's Apollo, shuttle launch site opens for tours

The NASA launch pad from which Apollo 11 lifted off for the first manned moon landing and Atlantis left Earth to fly the last space shuttle mission is now open to the public for tours.

Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida is the latest, limited-time tour stop being offered by the NASA spaceport's visitor complex. The tours — which also include separate trips to KSC's 52-story tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the Launch Control Center (LCC) — are now being offered as part of the center's 50th anniversary celebration.

"These are very rare opportunities that NASA has worked with us to provide to our visitors from Florida, across the United States and overseas," Bill Moore, chief operating officer of NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, said in a statement. "With exciting new space exploration programs coming to the Kennedy Space Center, we may never have access to such historic places like this again."

posted 07-20-2012 07:11 PM               

The Launch Pad Tour will run through the end of 2012 with a limited number of daily tours.

posted 07-23-2012 11:09 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by YankeeClipper:
Anyone know if the KSC Up-Close Launch Pad Tour is time-limited to 30 September 2012?

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posted 07-27-2012 03:55 PM               

The tour is the latest of three behind-the-scenes guided looks inside the highly secure Launch Complex 39, all of which will run through the end of 2012.

posted 02-08-2013 05:34 PM               

Near the pad, visitors will be able to exit the bus for photo opportunities, including close-up views of the 350 foot high (107 meter) fixed service structure (FSS), rotating service structure (RSS), propellant and water tanks, flame trench and other aspects of the launch pad complex.

posted 02-08-2013 09:09 PM               

After reboarding the bus, we continued to slowly circle the pad area, passing just a few yards from the Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen Storage Tanks, which are located some distance apart, for safety reasons. We also passed directly in front of the Hydrazine storage and processing area and the bunker area where the emergency escape basket cables come in from atop the service structure to ground level.

Our tour guide convinced our bus driver to take a slight detour off the official tour route to get us in a bit closer to the pad so we could get a better view of the flame deflector at the base of the pad. We were not allowed to get off the bus at this brief unofficial detour, but I would estimate we were no more than 200 to 300 yards from the base of the pad, so I was able to get a couple of fairly decent pictures of the base of the pad and the flame trench.

Our guide also pointed out a few things in the pad area that were left over from the Apollo days and no longer used by the Shuttle program. I asked our tour guide what NASA's future plans were for Pad 39-A and he replied that (as of last August) no final decision had been made as to future uses for the pad.

We also passed by Pad 39-B but did not go inside the perimeter fence area.