To infinity and back

By Curtis Krueger, Times Staff Writer
Published August 6, 2007

The Kennedy Space Center spent $60-million to build the Shuttle Launch Experience ride.
	[Edmund D. Fountain | Times]

As space shuttle astronauts prepare to launch aboard Endeavor on Wednesday, hundreds of regular folks are learning what it feels like to blast off. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex spent three years and $60-million to build the new Shuttle Launch Experience ride to give tourists a deeper understanding of the ferocious power that launches humans into orbit. But don't head to Cape Canaveral on Wednesday unless you want to deal with the crowds gathered to see the real thing.

The training

Four-time space shuttle astronaut Charlie Bolden will give you a video briefing in the "white room," similar to where real astronauts suit up before launch. "It can be rough," he warns.

Strapping in

You sit down and belt yourself in, taking care to secure your belongings so they don't fly around the cabin and become FOD (that's cool NASA talk for "foreign object debris"). Your seat tilts back to what feels like a 90-degree angle. You stare into blue sky and wait for the countdown.

Liftoff

The three main engines ignite, and you feel the spacecraft sway as 500,000 gallons of rocket fuel start to burn. Then the twin solid rocket boosters fire blastoff, providing even more thrust for your flight. You feel the force of the rocket shaking the cabin and pushing your body back into your chair as you blast through the atmosphere.

The danger

As you roar higher, the solid rocket boosters separate and fall into the Atlantic Ocean, just like they're supposed to. Everything works perfectly, until red danger lights come on, because the cabin is losing air pressure. It's an emergency that has to be fixed quickly. OUTER SPACE

After your speedometer hits 17,500 mph, you come to MECO, which is more NASA-speak for "main engine cutoff." Your seat pitches forward and for a moment, you can almost sense the weightlessness of space. And in another nice touch that makes you feel like you're in orbit, the shuttle's payload bay doors open to reveal the Earth above you. RE-ENTRY

To leave the shuttle you walk down a circular ramp, and look down on a wide image of the Earth from space. Along the way, you will pass a plaque for every space shuttle mission. That way, you can see the name of every man and woman who made real space shuttle journeys, including 14 who never came back. If you go The Shuttle Launch Experience.

• Ride is included in the $38 adult admission cost to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. (You can ride it as many times as you want.)
   
  
• The $60-million price tag was financed through ticket revenues from the visitor complex.
   
  
• Length of the ride: 12 minutes.
   
  
• Four different "shuttles" take off at the same time, each holding up to 44 passengers. Children must be at least 48 inches tall to ride.
   
  
• Other things to do at the visitor complex: take a tour of the space center, visit the "rocket garden," see IMAX movies, check out the large gift shop.

Before you go

Call (321) 449-4444 to check on availability of tickets. For directions, go to www.kennedyspacecenter.com.

[Last modified August 6, 2007, 07:48:41]