Moon Shot! July, 1969

One of the coolest things my Dad & Mom ever did, was to take three wide-eyed boys on a vacation to the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Kennedy (it was called Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, today it is called Cape Canaveral), Florida, a week before the Apollo 11 launch. That mission carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins on a mission that would have Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the Moon! These pictures were taken on that trip. Not the trip to the Moon, but the trip to Florida... Pay attention. Here you see the Saturn V rocket with the Apollo 11 command module on top, sitting on Pad 39A. It was just a couple-of-weeks shy of my 13th birthday.


Some support & rescue vehicles, nearby Pad 39A. On the tour, they told us that tank-looking thing could withstand a lot of fire and could be used to rescue the astronauts, if there were to be a problem.





Here is the huge Vehicle Assembly Building, where the pieces of the Saturn V moon-rocket were assembled before being rolled out to the pad on a big tractor.
All photos taken by Meeks, 7/1969.

(Click pics to enlarge)