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Konica Minolta Users | all galleries >> KM Mini-Challenges >> KM/Sony Mini-Challenge #163 - Museums and Galleries > Cape Canaveral Space Museum
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Aug 2006 LeeF

Cape Canaveral Space Museum

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

The Saturn V rocket assembly at the Kennedy Space Center museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida is literally breath-taking to behold up close. This image depicts part of an actual launch vehicle that was built but never launched due to the budget cutbacks in the early 70's. The entire assembly is horizontally suspended over the length of the building. This perspective is of the gold top of the liquid hydrogen tank in the second stage, and the single J-2 engine of the third stage. To give some perspective, that J-2 engine is 11 feet (3.3 meters), and the diameter of the 2nd stage is 33 feet (10 meters). This single J-2 engine powered Apollo out of earth's orbit and onto a trajectory to the moon, burning it's supply of over 300,000 gallons of hydrogen and oxygen in just 6 minutes. (Can you tell I'm endlessly fascinated?)


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Guest 08-Apr-2009 13:13
Thanks - and as the image author I totally agree that the composition could have been better in several areas. This is from my archives and I didn't have a lot of images in this category that had any "bang" to them. Highlights at the periphery are a bit blown with those spot lights. But I did like the colors and the apposing geometries of circles and grids - very "NASA" in itself - so I tossed it in the ring. Lee
Guest 08-Apr-2009 13:13
Thanks - and as the image author I totally agree that the composition could have been better in several areas. This is from my archives and I didn't have a lot of images in this category that had any "bang" to them. Highlights at the periphery are a bit blown with those spot lights. But I did like the colors and the apposing geometries of circles and grids - very "NASA" in itself - so I tossed it in the ring.
Konica Minolta Users07-Apr-2009 20:46
Leef,
An impressive shot of a fabulous artefact. I was growing up during the moon landings and it also made a lasting impression on me (so much so that I worked for several years in the software space industry).
It really captures the sense of scale and the fantastic engineering of the rocket stages. A couple of minor points: it might be better more centered; also the spotlights are slightly overpowering.
Mike.
Konica Minolta Users28-Mar-2009 08:45
Impressive. I, too, have always been fascinated with the space program. I remember every minute of the Apollo 11 mission and Armstrong's landing on the moon, seen live on TV, in 1969. I can't remember being so excited ever since. I was 13, and I already knew then I was going to treasure those moments for the rest of my life. I saved next morning's paper with the "Man on the Moon" headline and I still have it.

Gideon Gourell