ksc Archives - Rainer Gerhards

2007-12-23

NASA website problems…

Unfortunately, there seem to be some problems with at least a number of NASA websites. Most importantly, the KSC media gallery is no longer accessible. I noticed that yesterday, when I tried to find a good picture to go with yesterday’s article. Unfortunately, the site seems to be defunct and the problem still persists.

Of course, I doubted a local problem first. However, other users (from all around the world) report similar problems. Also, being a network guy, I traced the NASA site both from Europe and the US and it didn’t work in either case. NASA currently has IP packages being bounced between two systems, until the packets expire. Looks like either a router has died or there is a configuration problem.

Unfortunately, the media gallery is not the only resource that is down. Essentially, a number of KSC sites are affected and so I guess there is a problem with the main public Firewall (or whatever…). The bad news is that this will limit my ability to post nice pictures along with the blog posts. Obviously, I hope the situation will be resolved soon. In the mean time, you know why there are so few pictures in the blog these days ;)

2007-10-18

Launch Viewing from Kennedy Space Center’s Main Visitor Complex

I intended to write a longer post on viewing from Kennedy Space Center‘s main visitor complex (not the causeway. Unfortunately, it was an unexpectedly busy day, so I simply ran out of time. However, I’d still like to provide some information for my fellow launch viewers.

In short: viewing from Kennedy Space Centers’s main visitor complex is not as bad as you may think. Granted, the view is obstructed, and you won’t see the (exciting) first seconds of the launch. However, there are lots of activities scheduled at the center on launch days. There are kid’s activities, special astronaut encounters and much more (at least this is promised by KSC, but I am confident they live up to the promise). Compare that to waiting hours on a parking lot – especially when traveling with your family. So viewing from KSC’s main complex is probably worth considering – especially if you have other opportunities to view launches (e.g. if you live relatively close to Titusville). For the greatest view, you should try to obtain launch transportation tickets at a later launch. If you just have one time and did not get launch transportation tickets, you may consider purchasing those NASA causeway tickets via official tour operators.

To get you an impression of what a launch looks like form the main complex, you may want to have a look at this youtube video:

And this Google video may be even better:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2505328158758910223&q=shuttle&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

Finally, I have a few select impressions from KSC’s launch day setup from one of my failed attempts ;)

2007-10-08

A fire alert near the VAB

According to many news source, a fire alert happened last Friday on Kennedy Space Center property. The Launch Control Center and possibly also the VAB had been evacuated. NASA sources tell that the alert was not a drill, but it was a false alert. So, it was real, but the fire sensor didn’t work correctly and detected fire where none was.

To the best of my knowledge, work at the launch pad was not (seriously) affected by the fire alert. However, all traffic, including tour buses, was stopped.

But now think about launch day: if such an alert happens then, the launch will be scrubbed for sure. I hope this will not happen while I am on my launch viewing trip.

2007-09-22

Kennedy Space Center Webcams…

I just did a quick search on Google to view webcam of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) complex. I have to admit I did not expect anything real interesting to pop up – wrong! There is actually a bunch of webcams run by NASA itself, and they seem to over interesting content.

BTW: I need to say “seem”, because it is night in Florida as I blog this. So I rely on the captions.

But see yourself:

I’ll be on the hunt for more related webcams. If you happen to know some, I’d appreciate if you let me know (just use a comment).