Cape Canaveral, FL is the home of the Kennedy Space Center, where the American rocketry & space exploration has been located since the launch of the unmanned "Bumper 8" research rocket in July of 1950. In 1961, the launching of Alan Shepard from Pad 5, marked our first American in space. However, the BIG launching that I remember, happened in July of 1969. Apollo II blasted off from pad 39 and on the rocket were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins and they were heading for the moon. And while they were heading for the moon, John & I were packing and moving from San Jose, CA to Chico State College in Chico. Ray was just 1 month old and Matt, cute as a button, was 1 year old. These years were the beginning of our family and these launches were the beginning of our great American Space Program.
This is the building that they assemble the rockets for space. You can see on the ground in front of the building what is called a "crawler"...... Now this is a very interesting transporter. The wheels on the crawler look like a BIG tank... it weighs 2400 tons and its speed is 1 mile per hour.
I wish that this picture could show how big this really is..... This is just the bottom of a Command Module.
When the Apollo Program ended, a total of 12 astronauts had set foot on the lunar surface. Together they spent 160 hours on the moon, walking and riding more then 60 miles across its highlands and basins. What trips they had!!!
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