SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:This is Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER:And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program,EXPLORATIONS.
Today we tell about what visitors can see and do at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral,Florida.
It is the place where the American space agency NASA launches its space shuttles.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:It is morning on September eighth,Two-Thousand.
You are visiting the Kennedy Space Center.The voice you just heard is that of a NASA announcer.
He is counting the seconds to the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.
The shuttle-orbiter vehicle is making its twenty-second trip into space.
Five American astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts are waiting inside the shuttle.
They are about to travel three-hundred-fifty-four kilometers to the International Space Station.
Their job is to prepare the station for the first people who will live there.
Within days the Atlantis crew will have transported two-thousand kilograms of food,water,exercise equipment and other supplies into the station.
STEVE EMBER:Thousands of mechanical devices must be perfect before launch director Mike Leinbach can give the command"Go!"Tests show the equipment is working well.
Yet the weather remains a worry.Air Force and NASA experts are watching carefully.
Rain over the nearby Atlantic Ocean may be moving into the launch area.
A storm could delay the flight for weeks.
A NASA pilot is flying an airplane around the launch area to observe the weather.
This pilot reports that the shuttle can safely leave Earth.The weather experts agree.
A NASA announcer talks to the waiting crowd.
He explains that scientists and engineers on the ground are testing all the spacecraft's systems.
One after another,you can hear them report that their systems are"Go!"The final count before the launch begins.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:You feel the ground shake.You see yellow flames and smoke shoot out from under the rocket.
Atlantis climbs,followed by white smoke.The spaceship separates from the equipment that lifted it.
Atlantis is now on its way to chase the International Space Station.
STEVE EMBER:You have seen a space shuttle launch.
Now you want to learn about some of the work that made it possible.
So you go to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.This large educational center is not far from the launch area.
The name honors John F.Kennedy,thirty-fifth president of the United States.
The permanent visitor area opened in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven.
That is when NASA was preparing to launch the first astronauts to the moon.
Since then,millions of people have walked around the seven structures of the Visitor Complex.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITY:You take a bus to see some of the center's most important places.
One of these is called the VAB-the Vehicle Assembly Building.
It is the third largest building in the world.
It is one-hundred-sixty meters tall.The building covers more than three and one-quarter hectares.
Rocket-lifting devices,fuel tanks and shuttles are joined here.
When the spacecraft is ready,a long vehicle called a crawler carries it to one of the center's two launching areas.
Both are only a short distance away.However,the trip takes several hours.
The loaded crawler can travel only one and one half kilometers per hour.
STEVE EMBER:Now you decide to get a close look at a rocket.
So you go to an area called the Rocket Garden.A number of rockets stand in this area,noses pointed to the sky.
One of these rockets lifted the first American satellites into space in the Nineteen-Fifties.
Another lifted the first American astronaut into space.
Alan Shepard made that flight in Nineteen-Sixty-One.
Still another rocket launched the first American to orbit the Earth-John Glenn.
That happened in Nineteen-Sixty-Two.
One rocket in this area is not standing.The huge Apollo Saturn One-B lies on its side.
It is the only rocket in the Garden that NASA designed.
The other rockets were built as military missiles.
NASA later redesigned them for peaceful exploration of outer space.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:Next,you want to see the inside of a spacecraft.So you enter the Explorer.
This vehicle is a copy of a full-size space shuttle orbiter.
Once inside,you may be surprised at how the astronauts are able to work in such a small amount of space.
The pilot of an astronaut crew flies the shuttle from a crowded place called the flight deck.
Shuttle crews work on experiments in an area called the middeck.
They also sleep,eat and use the bathroom on the mideck.
Astronauts who work outside the spaceship repair satellites in an area behind the middeck.
This is the cargo bay.The Russian space station Mir connected with shuttles in this cargo bay area.
Inside the cargo bay is a fifteen-meter-long mechanical arm.
It help the astronauts work in space.Here you will also see a curved device covered with shining gold material.
In Nineteen-Ninety-Two it rescued a satellite that was traveling in the wrong orbit.
STEVE EMBER:By now you probably have questions about the space program.
You can get answers by attending a meeting with an astronaut.
On this day the speaker is aerospace engineer John Fabian.He has served on two space flights.
A child from Japan asks Mister Fabian if he always wanted to be an astronaut.
He says he did but he was too tall.He had to wait until spacecraft were designed with enough space for his height.
The earliest American astronauts were required to be average height or less.
Mister Fabian has special advice for the many children in the Visitor Complex this day.
He advises them to study hard so they can be a part of an exciting future.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:Children can learn about the space program from many exhibits in the Visitor Complex.
For example,a colorful,often funny presentation called"Robot Scouts"tells about the activities of robots.
These machines are designed to do special tasks in the space program.
Another exhibit offers a document for travel among the planets.
It asks young visitors to identify planets and space equipment like the Hubble Space Telescope.
Visitors can study the exhibits and supply the answers.
Other devices in this area of the Visitor Complex give information about the planets that orbit our sun.
These interactive machines provide facts in unusual way that helps visitors remember them.
STEVE EMBER:You can also watch several educational movies about space.
A movie called"Quest for Life"explores the possibility of finding forms of life on what may be two-thousand-million other planets in the universe.
NASA scientists say many of these planets may have the elements required to support life.
Another movie tells about a future community in space.
"L-Five,First City in Space"is the story of a human city built far from Earth.
It tells some of the many dangers that the first space citizens may face.
NASA scientists helped produce the film,which shows events that seem very real.
For example,water from a waterfall in the movie appears to be about to flow directly on your head.
You wear special eyeglasses to see the action.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITY:The sun is going down now.Soon the Visitor Complex will close for the day.
But before you leave,you visit the Space Mirror.The Mirror is a large black stone wall.
It contains names of astronauts killed while training or serving in space.
Those honored here include three astronauts who served in the early days of the American Space Age.
Gus Grissom,Roger Chaffee and Edward White died in a Nineteen-Sixty-Seven fire on the ground.
The names of the crew who died in the space shuttle Challenger also are on the wall.
Challenger exploded shortly after its launch in Nineteen-Eighty-Six.
Six astronauts and school teacher Christa McAuliffe died in the explosion.