Wow! Where do I begin…As a true believer in space exploration and one who has internalized the biological imperative of “Get Off This Rock” this was my personal Hajj to space exploration central. Barb had been here with her brother several years ago, I had never been and went alone…

Rockets and more rockets.

Buildings, imagination and achievement on a scale that defy daily existence…

Behold, the worlds largest one story structure…on the left space shuttle assembly building…note the flag on the left…On the right I am standing on one of the stars that appear on the flag…painted on the ground in front of the building. Truly larger than life.

I took a tour of the various launch pads and on our way, SpaceX was returning a recently launched rocket to their facility at the Cape.

Pads 39A & 39B then it was off to the Saturn 5 and Moon shots exhibit…

I was repeatedly caught off guard by the scale and size of these achievements. It was compounded by the infantile technology available at the time and used with such precision and confidence. A staggering achievement by today’s measure, profoundly astonishing given the circumstances…

From there I entered the space shuttle exhibit. Equivalently impressed… but it was the seeming destiny that the whole space program had that was so pervasive.

As I left and drove back to Coco Beach I was intoxicated with the space program but left with this nagging feeling that the best had already happened. It was a similar feeling I had leaving the Louvre as a child. As if I had the best had been preserved for display…

Sadly, I asked myself…when do we take the next step into the stars?

Selfishly, I thought will I live long enough to see it start?