I'm back

And it looks like I have some catching up to do.

My vacation was not completely unproductive though. I spent an entire day at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral...

And there's a moon rock on display you can touch. I can't help but think that all you're really touching is a nice layer of dirt and grime built up from previous people who've touched it, but I had to stick my hand in anyway.

This is Atlantis on the launch pad. The rotating pad is firmly locked onto it and workers are preparing for it's scheduled launch on March 15.

But the star of the center is definitely this. These engines are capable of creating 7-million pounds of thrust. Why is so much power needed?


Because they're used to launch this. The 363-foot Saturn V rocket. The immensity of this thing is truly staggering. It's twice the size of the current shuttles, and it's the only vehicle ever produced that can actually get humans to another planet.

After seeing this, any doubts I had about the Moon landing have been squashed.