Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

Last night, I was watching Fox News covering live on the Endeavour Launch at Fort Canaveral, Florida and right after it launched, we went outside the front yard to see it in the sky. It was so clear and beautiful. My first time to witness but I wish to really see it in the facility itself. It is an hour drive from home but, we are too lazy to drive to Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour is the 27th shuttle flight to the International Space Station orbiting 220 miles above Earth.
Mission: (126th) Expansion of the Space Station facilities such as kitchen, bedroom and bathroom to accommodate a 6 member crew.
Load: a.) 2 food warmers, refrigerator, water dispenser (these are not the ordinary kitchen things that we have in our houses) which will be installed in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module of the station;
b.) high-tech home improvement materials;
c.) food and clothing for the station crew;
d.) modular crew quarter with laptop connectivity which will be installed in Harmony node;
e.) exercise equipment;
f.) waste and hygiene compartment which is a Russian-built toilet compartment
g.) and a water recovery system- from waste water into a drinking quality water
( if you are curious with these high-tech things, click here )
Below are just the pictures I took when I was there last August. Even the rug in their facility is not safe with my camera.LOL!
This building is one of the stop when you tour the facility. At the top floor, you can view clearly the Launch Area as seen on the top picture using the telescope of course (need a coin to function though...hehehe).
Launch Complex 39, Observation Gantry Area. Oh well, I need my remembrance too LOL. A tourist noticed that I took pictures most of the time and he volunteered, what a nice gesture.huh! "Mahangin sa labas" .... no time to comb my hair...hahaha!
The launch pad ( the tiny building at the far end)....told you guys, i need a sophisticated camera to zoom in the picture I want...waaaaaa. This is how you see it at the top floor in naked eye. If you use the telescope...100x better. I think, this is the nearest facility that you can go to see the launch area, unless you work in that location.
This is the road of the big CRAWLER- a vehicle that transport the rocket from Vehicle Assembly Building to Mobile Launch Flatform and would take 5 hours to travel. No wonder it is called crawler...hehehe...it runs so slow imagine the weight of a big rocket. This is the picture of crawler moving the shuttle. Click here.
Okay, this is where they assemble the rocket...the VAB . It is pretty big actually. Imagine the big rocket again...how genius these people working here ha.
How big is the ROCKET? THIS BIG. Yep, I am the ant below the steel. By the way, this is the real SATURN V ROCKET, the rear engines alone are so huge. This is the moon rocket. The whole building in this floor from this point onward is the whole rocket display. How huge it is right?Okay, that is all friends...be telling you more about my escapades next time.....educational right? Wish my pupils can see these things...(sigh)