You only live once

It's 5.30pm. I'm sitting at Memphis Airport in Tennessee. The city is renown for many things; Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated here in 1968 and Elvis Presley once lived nearby on his Graceland estate. However, I'm not stopping in Memphis. I'm off to Huntsville, Alabama for a 24-hour flying visit before heading to New York for work.

Huntsville is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Museum. The Space Shuttle's giant orange external tank is manufactured here. It's rocket engines were also tested here, as were many of America's greatest rockets - including the Saturn V which eventually took men to the moon.

I've always wanted to visit the Space Centre and its museum. During the Christmas holidays I saw some cheap tickets from New York to Huntsville. In a moment of consumer impulse madness I decided to fulfil another childhood dream and booked myself a flight. Watch out for photos of a Saturn V rocket, Apollo 16's command module and fragments of Skylab salvaged from the West Australian desert. Yes, I am a space geek.

NOTE:
The photo illustrating this post was added after my visit to the Museum.