Cabin 68 - Home to Capt Leonard, Spearin, d'Entremont, Roman, Nasmith, and Comeau replaced-by-Collins to-be-replaced-by-Tucker

"When Cabin 68 is Rockin', don't come a Knockin'!"

(this photo was taken before Capt Comeau left to reutrn to Halifax)

Jason shows his devotion to our Commanding Officer, Cdr Peter Avis... sorry, Jay, that's the closest you'll get to him!

Air Det visits the Kennedy Space Center – 11 March 2001

What a great day to relive a part of our history (well at least for those of us around in the 60’s).  And the price was right as well!  Unfortunately most of the aircrew were unable to make it due to a bad case of Cocoa Beach “Flu”.  For those that made the trip, they had the opportunity to visit the Apollo/Saturn V Center, the International Space Station Center, and Launch Control 39 (LC-39), which is the observation gantry for the space shuttle launches.  Since the shuttle blasted off into space on Thursday, we didn’t have the opportunity to see one on the pad – poor Pat.  We did see the “crawlers” that they use to transport the shuttles to the launch pad.  There are only two in existence and they are as old as the Sea King (and the Maj!).  Each tread weighs one ton and its fuel mileage is about 18 feet to the gallon (yes, that is feet)!  It travels at 1 MPH with the shuttle and doubles its speed to 2 MPH without it.  At the Apollo/Saturn V Center, we were able to touch a piece of moon rock and stroll along a Saturn V rocket that hadn’t made the journey to space, and look at a command module that had returned – it was pretty burned up on the bottom due to the extreme temperatures that are encountered when entering the earth’s atmosphere.  We watched a short presentation on the moon landing (Apollo 11) as well – did you know that they almost didn’t make it?  At the International Space Station Center we watched a video of Canada’s Mark Garneau describe Canada’s contribution, a new manipulator arm that is being developed, which is a follow on to the Canadarm.  Also, after seeing what they call a wardroom on the space station, the aircrew in cabin 68 shouldn’t be complaining.

Overall, a great time was had by all and we would like to express our gratitude to the Kennedy Space Center for hosting us.  Please enjoy the accompanying photos of our trip.

AR: VAB, where the Space Shuttle is mounted on the mobile launch pad

L: The Saturn V Rocket; rockets and spaced ships aren't the only things you'll find at Kennedy! This little guy was seen on the side of the road.

BL: The Boys watching a 3D Rocket Launch

BR: The CANADARM II, Canada's donation to the International Space Station Program

"Are you flying?"...

Jason and Barry ponder the possibilities of a "hands-off" approach to landing on the USS Tortuga

"no, I thought you were flying..."

Arrghhh matey, we managed to get an Ohio Class Nuclear Submarine to surface!

No, it's not real, it's actually only about two feet tall, and is about 15 feet in front of Luke. Neat, huh?