At NASA, many trails lead to the launch pad (Seaman Jr.)

Photo Credit: Wendy R. Neuerberg/NASA

Like every astronaut who’s gone before me, I visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to practice climbing aboard before the actual launch. Here I am in front of the big Vehicle Assembly Building where they put together the Saturn V rockets that carried human astronauts to the Moon 50 years ago – and after that, all the space shuttles that ever flew! It’s the same place where NASA’s big new rocket for deep space exploration, the Space Launch System, will be assembled for its first flight around the Moon in the not-so-distant future. For my mission to the International Space Station, I launched on a different rocket, the commercial SpaceX Falcon 9, from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.