A Trip To Kennedy Space Center

The kids had the awesome opportunity to attend a class at the Kennedy Space Center a few weeks ago. It was arranged by someone in the umbrella school that we're enrolled with and I was thrilled for the chance to go. It's something I've always meant to do but never gotten around to. The best part was, the class and admission were all free!

Aravis and Dominick took a class on rockets in the morning. They learned about how rockets work and are built. Then they designed and built one themselves. Afterwards they went outside to launch them and test out their designs. 

Aravis's rocket kicked butt. I got there just in time to see hers fly way above and beyond everyone else's. Dominick's did well too but I think his ego was slightly bruised that his little sister had out engineered him. 

After that, we were free to explore the space center.

 3...2...1...blastoff! 

Aravis wasn't sure she was going to like the space center but she really enjoyed the class and ended up having a great time. Xury, on the other hand, loves space and the International Space Station so she was thrilled to be there. (Although, she thought we were going to the actual space station so she was a little disappointed when she found out we were spending the day on Earth)  Luckily, they had an ISS model high up in the air for her to play in.

We've watched space walks and space capsules return to earth. We've seen the space station in orbit in the night sky. We followed the news about Scott Kelly, the ISS commander who had been in space for a year and returned just a few days before our trip. So, the ISS was definitely the highlight of the space center.

We learned how they eat, sleep....

and go potty in space. 

Dominick rode on a simulated shuttle launch. 

And Xury just pretended to be an astronaut all day. 

While we were there we found out that there was a rocket launch scheduled for that evening. We weren't allowed to stay on the property for the launch but we were close enough that we could see and hear it well. The light was so intense, it was almost blinding. Unfortunately, all I had was my phone so I didn't get any good pictures but the experience was so cool. Aravis narrated everything that was happening to me, thanks to her newly acquired rocket knowledge. Did you know that all the rocket parts but one are retrieved from the ocean and reused? I didn't. 

It was the perfect end to a pretty amazing day.