an actual moonrocket.

Space Cork's Catherine Ryan Howard spent a year in and around Orlando, Florida working for Walt Disney World. Her memoir of the trip, Mousetrapped, includes a chapter about her visit to the Kennedy Space Center which is everything you'd want to be -- a nostaglia tinged fact filled reportage. It's previewed/published at Keris Stainton's blog:
"I was in the presence of an actual moonrocket. After landing five Apollo crews on the lunar surface, and with the Soviets well and truly beat, Americans turned their backs on the space program and NASA’s once limitless funding all but dried up; the remaining Apollo missions were cancelled. While I was happy to see a real Saturn V at KSC, it should have been used to take men to the moon on Apollos 18 or 19. Instead, this Saturn V was helping visitors from all over the world understand the true meaning of the phrase ‘mind-boggling.’ Taking in its stats made my brain ache like it did when I tried to make sense of what was going on with Lost."
The first chapter of Mousetrapped is also available at the book's official website, and has the gossipy tone of the best pen pal you've ever had.

No comments: