What little information I can find says the beach house was built in 1962 and was called the Astronaut Training and Rehabilitation Building. It's far away from most everything at Kennedy Space Center and is right on the ocean tucked between rocket launch pads. Old pictures show the two story building as a dull grey color, but after it was damaged during the hurricanes of 2004 the whole thing had to be remodeled. It's now bright yellow.
The building has a large deck with a great view of the ocean, several rocket pads and the shuttle launch pads.
The beach house is still used by the astronauts around launch time, but the rest of the year it's used as a conference center for employees to have classes and meetings. The inside is decorated to look beachy or Floridian. It's cute, and I have not found an uncomfortable couch in the place.
One of the neat things they have in the beach house is a pair of glass cases. Inside are empty bottles from the alcohol of choice (wine, champagne, whiskey, etc.) each crew drank in celebration of their upcoming mission. Most have mission stickers on them and several are signed by crew members.
The best part of being out at the beach house is when you get to go out and walk on the beach. It's one of the few strips of coastline in Florida you can look up or down and not see a condo anywhere. It's fantastic!
Myca and I also made a new friend on this trip. His name is Terrell (pronounced TAIR-ull).
That about sums up the beach house. Thanks this week go to Bill for picking a great location for our meeting, and for both spotting and naming the tortoise. It's always nice to have a friend to play with.
No comments:
Post a Comment