The day started early with a pick up at about 6 am from a hotel a short distance from the one I was staying at.  The coach took us into the KSC Visitor Centre so we could clear security, we then got back on the coach to be taken to the launch viewing site on the causeway that links KSC with the mainland.  The causeway is the closest point to LC39 that is accessible to the public (it is about 6 miles away) and it is closed to traffic during a launch and so becomes available for other use.

As it turned out my tour bus stopped at what was probably the finest viewing point for LC39A with a clear view across the water to the Space Shuttle Atlantis looking at the Shuttle from above with the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters to the rear.  Unfortunately the temperature meant that there was a fair amount of haze.

From where I was on the causeway I could see most of the active parts of the Kennedy Space Centre including:

Launch Complex 37 which was originally used during the Apollo Program to launch Saturn 1 but was rebuilt and is now used as the launch site for the Delta IV operated by United Launch Alliance

The massive Vertical Assembly Building constructed for the Apollo Program and then used by the shuttle Program.

Just visible through the haze was Launch Complex 39B and the nose of Space Shuttle  Endeavour that was prepared as STS-400 to fly the the Contingency Shuttle Crew Support mission.

Unless you are a VIP the Causeway represents the best viewing point and as a result is crowded as the next two photographs show.

The next pages shows the launch of Atlantis as mission STS-125.