This is one of the two or three rockets left. There is this one laying on its side with stages slightly separated in Houston and apparently there is another one standing upright at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The most interesting thing about the rocket, apart from the scale which no picture can really capture, is the fact that the whole thing looks like it was put together in someone's backyard. Ok a really really big back yard but still.
One of my fellow tour takers said, "Really look like it was made in shop class, doesn't it?"
That really captures the essence. Although they weren't really reused, the enormous rocket was slightly bashed in looking and when you looked at the business end, the end where the giant propulsion occurs, you really get the feeling you are looking at something smushed together slightly badly then covered in tin foil. I really wish I could have captured that in a photograph. All I could get was this shot from near the top end; this thing is huge.
Being there did give you a frisson of pride. If man can do this then surely they can figure out some other stuff. Of course that was ages ago.
Note to Mum and Dad: I still can't believe you wanted to do this Dad or that you were willing to let him, Mum.
When I was in Houston at the end of January, as a side trip from the meeting, we went to the Johnson Space Center. This picture is from the gallery at the original Mission Control. As with all pictures from the race to the moon I was struck by how amazing it was that any one actually made it to the moon let alone back. The computers in the mission control were only terminals and the guide says the computing power was something tiny and the main frame took up a whole floor underneath this control room.
