* The Saturn rocket, used to launch the Apollo missions, was taller than two of the Statue of Liberty stacked one on top of the other.
* Fifteen seconds before the space shuttle's rockets were fired for the launch, more than 300,000 gallons of water were released from an adjacent water tower, flooding the concrete trough in which the launch tower sits. The water acted as a sound absorber, taking in the sound waves caused by the explosion. Without the water, the sound waves from ignition would bounce off the concrete and back up to the shuttle in their full force, causing monumental damage.
* The ignition of the solid-fuel rockets on the space shuttle was equivalent to an atomic bomb.
* The track transporter took seven hours to move the shuttle from the assembly building three miles to the launch pad.
* The snakes and alligators that live in the protected lands around Kennedy go completely berserk during any type of launch.
* NASA chose the Cape Canaveral site for launch operations because it offers two key elements: ability to launch over the ocean; and it's closer to the equator, where the earth's rotation is fastest, giving rockets an extra boost of thrust.
* The space shuttle program launched 135 missions. Each mission team created a unique patch, worn on their flight suits. Hard to believe how much was accomplished in the program's 30-year history. We're so glad to have lived in the time of its activity. And the Challenger and Columbia disasters are huge markers in our personal stories, similar to the Kennedy assassination in our parents' memory.
Tomorrow we leave Florida and begin our final loop north, culminating in Williamsburg for Thanksgiving week. Then we'll point the truck west and head for home!
Photo: Tonight's moonrise over the Florida Atlantic.
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