ROSS THORBY: SEA FEVER Kennedy Space Centre was always going to be a highlight of this world cruise for me. I can remember as a small boy sitting in front of our TV watching the flickering images of those pioneer astronauts... “One small step for man”... one giant leap for a kid’s imagination. Quietly I harboured a dream of one day seeing and touching one of those amazing flying machines, a real life spaceship, something born out of the imagination of man to reach the stars. But life continued, years went by and a boy’s dream was left unfulfilled until one day it appeared on a ship’s itinerary and the opportunity of a life time presented itself. Cape Canaveral. The Kennedy Space Centre. NASA... Spaceships and those incredible flying machines. It was too good an opportunity to miss and now here I am at the very place. Dreaming has become a reality. On leaving our ship, we were met by our guide, Jody. Jody was perky. blonde, blue eyed and very American; she bounced around our bus with great enthusiasm imparting her well-rehearsed patter interspersed with infectious laughter and corny space jokes. She implored us to keep an eye out for alligators on our journey. It seems that every bit of open water here, including the ponds on people’s front yards, is inhabited by these massive reptiles, which begs the question: Why would you purposely have a dark and murky pond on your front yard if it is going to encourage these things to lie in wait for you? Apparently on launch day when the earth shakes, the ‘gators go berserk, coming up out of the ditches, swamps and ponds to run around in a primordial frenzy. Snapping and fighting with each other before quietly slinking back to their habitats after the rockets are well into the sky. On arrival at our first port of call: it was impossible to describe the sensation of standing in a room with the actual Apollo landing craft hanging from the ceiling as if it was about to land. It conjures up that memory of the flickering black and white image from so long ago. We see the pods in which the early astronauts sat. Small peaked capsules that sat atop the first manned rockets that were fired into space. They are barely arely big enough for humans, let alone the computers they took with them. We sat in that confined space - not for the claustrophobic. In another room, the very space suits that walked on the moon, a piece of moon rock that you could actually touch and the capsule in which the first astronauts returned to Earth, its metal exterior all burnt and rugged from re-entry. Around the halls at various points were retired engineers and astronauts, willing to share their stories and answer our questions, their enthusiasm still prevalent well into their retirement. As we progressed around the centre’s buildings, the story of man’s space endeavours was told: his first satellite launch, the first man into space, and the first men on the moon, was told. The next stop was ‘current Man’s Achievements’, the now retired Atlantis Spaceship. We are now capable of sending men into space and returning them to Earth in the same vehicle which can then be reused for the next mission. Standing in a darkened room, a huge 3D show extolling the virtues and mysteries of space exploration and the possible future. Dramatically, the wall at the front of the theatre disappeared and there she was. Big bird. You thought the Concorde was cool. Wait until you see this... It’ll bring tears to your eyes, this amazing piece of technology. The small cockpit up front and a huge cargo bay behind open to show the interior positioned atop vast wings. It floated, suspended above the floor on an angle as if coming in to land only a few feet away.
72 PONSONBY NEWS+ May 2016
It was amazing. It brought tears to my eyes. Seriously, it did! After watching this machine on TV, marvelling at what we can achieve when we set our minds to it, when it was right in front of us, it was truly awe inspiring. Before we left the room, I took the opportunity to talk to one of the engineers who had worked on her, he was as proud of her today as he had been when she was flying the skies. And for a small boy watching that ancient flickering image all those years ago? Dream achieved. Atlantis - damn. (ROSS THORBY) F PN
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