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Imagine you are sitting inside a tiny tin can on top of a million pounds of explosive that is about to be lit. Sound scary? There are a handful of people who choose this as their job and regularly risk their lives for just one chance to explore the unknown.
At Cape Canaveral, NASA regularly sends people into space like this and I got to experience first-hand what launching into space feels like. After about three hours driving I arrived at the Kennedy Space Center visitors complex which was close to land's end and in the middle of a nature preserve. The visitor's complex has a simulator specially designed to give visitors the experience of blasting into space. You sit down in a chair and are strapped in, then the "shuttle" moved into a ninety degree angle and the countdown began. This is when the shaking began and it quickly escalated to the point where I felt like I MUST have multiple chins! The noise also gets louder and deeper and the pressure pushing you back into your seat escalates. The noise and shaking built in intensity and just when it got to breaking point it all stopped. Silence. Darkness. Weightless. Awesome.
I then joined the throngs of people (and the long queues) on a tour of the space facility - which is so big that is had to be done by bus. I felt like I had left planet earth and entered an alternate universe. I couldn't understand the language that was being used (even though I knew it was English) Words and jargon like "Apollo," "mars mission" and "space station" were bandied around as thought they were common everyday ideas. Did you know that NASA is building a space station so that people can live in space? I felt like I could be in an episode of Star Trek or in a 1960's Martian cartoon, but this was real life! I was amazed and humbled by the enormity and beauty of the project. This was the same feeling that I have when I'm surrounded by nature and truly bowled over by its awesomeness - God is so present and it is amazing!
Today I was able to celebrate how we were created - as a species who was born to discover and explore. Today I dreamed of being a space explorer and discovering the universe.
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