And now for something a little different from my usual travel blog posts: witnessing the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale at Cape Canaveral, Florida. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my husband is a space plasma physicist, and we were fortunate enough to witness the launch of one of his primary projects in person!
Kennedy Space Center
It wouldn’t be a NASA-y trip without visiting the Kennedy Space Center while in town. There are several space vehicles spread out over the grounds, and the museum building itself has an incredible video intro. (I won’t say more because I don’t want to ruin the surprise.) The main draw – to me at least – was being able to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis up close and personal.
Harry Potter World
For a completely “off-topic” day, me and the fam headed to Harry Potter World for the afternoon. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Ok, I’m a really huge Snape fan. Ok, ok…I’m a really, really huge fan of anything Alan Rickman touches. In any case, we had a fun and relaxing day drinking Butterbeer and wandering around Diagon Alley.
Visiting the Launch Pad
Due to the literal luck of the draw, I was one of the family members that managed to jump on the bus trip to the launch pad the morning of the Magnetospheric Multiscale launch. I’m not gonna lie – when I looked back at these photos later that night, it was skin-tingling to think that the thing I had taken pictures in front of that morning, was then orbiting in space that evening.
NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, ready to launch. 
Laura in front of the NASA MMS mission, ready to launch on an Atlas 5 rocket.
Apollo/Saturn V Center
The moment had arrived. We headed to the Apollo/Saturn V Center for a reception leading up to the Magnetospheric Multiscale launch. If you get the opportunity to head to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, do – it’s another huge facility with some incredible space-faring artifacts.
I hate to be the barer of bad news at the end of this post, but I didn’t actually get any decent photos or video footage of the launch itself. But if you get a chance to witness one yourself, it’s a truly incredible experience. Did you know that you can feel the heat of the rockets from even several miles away?
Enjoying my “Looking Back” series? Over the past few years, my love for both hiking and traveling has increased almost exponentially, and I’ve been fortunate to have had so many opportunities to travel recently. With the current health crisis, our travel plans for 2020 and 2021 were scuttled; so I decided I’d take some time over the next few months to write this “Looking Back” series, where I dive into a recap of some of my favorite trips over the last few years. Click the navigation below to read more.
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