Day 10 - Kennedy Space Center Orlando, Florida

An early start...

Another unique experience was an unscheduled 1am wake-up call as a false alarm caused the entire Hotel complex to be evacuated.

It is reassuring to know that hundreds of  people can evacuate a 5 storey building in the middle of the night in a calm and orderly manner.

Kennedy Space Center

Day 9 saw us travel the 60 miles to the Kennedy Space Center. Along the way we managed to spot some of the local wildlife from the bus...

We also saw a huge Bald Eagle nest that has managed to survive 135 shuttle launches and many hurricanes in the same tree over the past 45 years.

Seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis was truly breathtaking...

The students also had the opportunity to have lunch with Astronaut Jim Reilly...

and ask some questions.

It was then off to the Launch Facility...

The pictures do not truly show the enormous size of this building... the star section of the flag is the size of an NBA basketball court and it is the largest single-storey building in the world!

Saturn V rocket