Saturn V S-II

The 2nd stage of the Saturn V was called an S-II and was powered by 5 J-2 engines which can be seen on the left. This S-II stage was S-II-14 which would have powered Apollo 19 on its canceled flight to the Moon. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye with an exposure of 1/60 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

USA

Everything about the Saturn V rocket is huge, including this "USA" painted vertically on the side of the S-IC rocket stage. This image was taken with the 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/30 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

S-IC - another view

This is probably the closest I came to taking an image of the entire Saturn V rocket - in this fisheye view, the top of the rocket disappears off in the distance to the right. The huge F-1 engines are at the left of center. This image was taken at 1/50 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 with my 10mm fisheye lens.

The Saturn V S-IC first stage

Even with a fisheye lens you almost can't get far enough back inside the Saturn V center at KSC to get a picture of the entire S-IC rocket stage. This stage is dressed up like S-IC-6, the first stage that launched Apollo 11 on its historic journey to the Moon but it is really S-IC-T, a test stage. The real S-IC-6 impacted the Atlantic ocean after completing its mission and rests on the seafloor several hundred miles off the Florida coast. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens at 1/50 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Imagine 7.5 million pounds of thrust

The Saturn V rocket at the Saturn V center at KSC demonstrates just how large the rocket was. This is the business end of the S-IC first stage and I stood under the 5 F-1 engines with my fisheye lens to capture this shot. At launch, these engines actually had some insulation around them which is something I didn't learn until reading a recent book on the F-1 engines. Of the 5 F-1 engines on this stage, 2 were test fired on this stage, another is a production F-1 and the final 2 are mockups. This image was taken at f/8 with 1/30 seconds exposure, ISO 400 with my 10mm fisheye.

LC 39 Apollo era Launch Control Center

This is a recreation of the Apollo era Launch Control Center of LC39 which was located adjacent to (and part of) the VAB. This exhibit is at one entrance to the Saturn V center and the experience of launch as viewed from the LCC is reproduced here. This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens at f/2.8, 1/10 seconds at ISO 400.

SLF control tower

The Shuttle Landing Facility is the runway that the Space Shuttle lands on at Kennedy Space Center when it returns from orbit. This is the control tower adjacent to the runway. To the left of the building are the viewing stands used by family of the crew and VIPs during shuttle landings. This image was taken at 42mm focal length with an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.

Launch pad 39B

Launch complex 39 includes the VAB and pads 39A and 39B. Built for the Apollo program in the 1960s, both were converted for Space Shuttle operations in the 1970s an early 1980s. The first Space Shuttle launch from pad 39B was the ill fated Challenger flight on January 28, 1986. Recently this pad has started undergoing changes including the addition of 3 lightning towers that now surround it. The changes were aimed at making it the launch pad for the Ares I and Orion spacecraft whose future is very uncertain at the moment. In the near future, the launch tower and rotating service structure on the pad will be demolished. The next time we visit KSC, probably for the launch of Endeavour early next year, this launch pad will look very different. This image was taken with the kit lens at 55mm focal length with an exposure of 1/160 seconds at f/8, ISO 100.

The VAB up close

During the KSC tour, we stopped next to the VAB - actually at the site where the Saturn V rocket used to be displayed before it was moved to the Saturn V center not too far down the road. This image is slightly cropped from the original that was shot with the kit lens at 28mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.