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I am sitting on a simulator, strapped, to experience a satellite launch. The place is known as the Shuttle Launch Experience, located inside the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) Visitor Complex, in Florida, USA.
Veteran NASA astronauts call it the next best thing to actual space. The G-force pushes me back as I reach 17,500 miles per hour. Then, there is the sensation of zero-gravity (or weightlessness) for a few seconds. I am in space. The feeling is something words cannot describe.
Moon’s rock
Also, some kind of emotion builds up when I touch the small piece of rock that has been brought back from the moon.
If you visit the Apollo / Saturn V Center, you can touch a moon rock, and also stand under a large rocket — the mighty Saturn V. This American 363-feet projectile carried 27 brave astronauts to the moon and back.
We are part of the generation that has grown up admiring Rakesh Sharma, India’s astronaut who reached space in April 1984. The visit is also remembered for an iconic conversation that he had with the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. She asks him: “How does India look from there?” Sharma says: “Saare jahan se achcha” (Better than the whole world), which is a famous line by poet Muhammad Iqbal.
When I visit the KSC, those memories are in the back of my mind, and it always gives me a sense of pride.
“He is my good friend from India,” says astronaut Captain Jon McBride, who meets us, a group of journalists visiting the space centre as part of Visit Florida’s tourism programme, and recalls the friendly bond he shares with Rakesh Sharma.
When I step inside the KSC, I encounter a person dressed as an astronaut. Moving past him, I enter the Rocket Garden.
From the first unmanned mission to the earliest of the Apollo missions that would one day travel to the moon, America’s history in space is laid out in the sprawling garden.
“After Yuri Gagarin (of the then USSR) reached space, it was a challenge for USA. And then, president John F Kennedy outlined what had to be done. Alan Shepard became the first American in space. That was 1961, and in 1969, we landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins became national heroes... the space mission continues,” says Tom Bartosek, from the Space Coast Office of Tourism, as he takes us through the space journey of America.
KSC’s Atlantis showcases the priceless, historic spacecraft that tells the incredible story of NASA’s 30-year Space Shuttle programme.
Gigantic projectile
The shuttle is displayed here (only spacewalking astronauts have seen her before), rotated 43.21 degrees, with the payload doors open, and its Canadarm (robotic arm) extended, after being undocked from the International Space Station quite recently.
Also celebrated are the thousands of people who took part in creating and maintaining NASA’s five space-flown shuttles — Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour — and how the shuttle programme has paved way for NASA’s next generation of manned spaceflight programmes. The space odyssey continues. But for me, taking a photo with the majestic space shuttle Atlantis is one of the finest moments at the space centre.
An astronaut’s words
America’s sense of history needs to be appreciated,” said Wing Commander (Retd) Rakesh Sharma, and added, “I visited KSC last year on NASA’s invitation, and gave a series of talks about the Russian training methods for the crews selected for space flights. Even at a personal level, it was an informative visit, and I was impressed with the American ‘sense of history’ in chronicling the success and the failure that their space professionals experienced during the conduct of their space programme.”
Rakesh Sharma
(Retd) Wing Commander
In 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first citizen of India to visit space when he flew aboard the Soviet rocket, Soyuz T-11, which blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on April 2, 1984. He spent 7 days, 21 hours and 40 minutes aboard the Salyut 7, during which his team conducted scientific and technical studies, including 43 experimental sessions.