Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!robertb
From: robertb@cs.washington.edu (Robert Bedichek)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Closest allowed to launch
Message-ID: <12488@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 7 Jul 90 05:46:13 GMT
References: <2694cced-13asci.space.shuttle@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: robertb@june.cs.washington.edu (Robert Bedichek)
Organization: University of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 24

In article <2694cced-13asci.space.shuttle@vpnet.chi.il.us> topgun@vpnet.chi.il.us (robert white) writes:
>
> I was recently a visitor at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
>    I heard that at the time of a sapce shuttle launch, no one is
>permitted to be any closer than the vehicle assembly building.
>    If you are a tourist who doesn't have connections like a
>Steven Speielberg or media type who seem to get invited for a ring
>side seat, what is the closest you can hope to get to watch a
>shuttle launch?

Perhaps your best bet is to get a ride on a boat that goes up
the Banana River to the edge of the Manatee preservation area.
I saw a Titan 3 launch that way two weeks ago.

>    As a point of interest, why are there several armored personnel
>carriers scattered between the vehicle assembly buliding and the
>route to the launch pads 39a and 39b?

I'm surprised that the Tour guide didn't point them out.  They are
rescue/escape vehicles.  There is a guide wire system that the
astronauts would use to get from the orbiter gantry to APV's on the
ground.  They would be used in case of a conflagration on the pad.

	Rob