Google Street View goes to Kennedy Space Center

I don't know what the best words ever written in the English language are, but I'm willing to put "Top of Launch Pad 39A, Address is Approximate" up there on the short list.

Among the images you can now explore online with the click of your mouse are the space shuttle launch pad, Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Firing Room #4. Gaze down from the top of the enormous launch pad, peer up at the towering ceiling of the Vehicle Assembly Building (taller than the Statue of Liberty) and get up close to one of the space shuttle’s main engines, which is powerful enough to generate 400,000 lbs of thrust. And even though they recently entered retirement, you can still get an up-close, immersive experience with two of the Space Shuttle Orbiters—the Atlantis and Endeavour.

I'm not sure when this went live, but it's seriously phenomenal. And it's part of a larger series of special Street View galleries with geeky appeal. There are sets for Antarctica (see Shackleton's shack!), historic Italy (wander around the Colosseum!), and UNESCO World Heritage Sites (includes Pompeii!). In general, discovering this could be a major time-suck for me, if I'm not careful.

See the NASA collection

Check out the other Street View Galleries

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: armchair travel • awesome • google • Science • travel

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sciwizam

It was recent, sometime last week.
RKTR ♫soundcloud.com/rktr

Think you could climb that thing, brah?
http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

Been there, done that. And on the roof of the VAB. Great views.
WaylonWillie

Notice how dropping the little map-position-man inside the space center turns him into an astronaut.
BookGuy

Just great. Now it will be about a week before somebody tries to drive their SUV up that walkway.
HOTDAMN

This is ridiculous. Why don’t they just hand the moon directly to the terrorists and save some time!?
politeruin

Anyone else want one of these panoramas on the moon? I’m just wondering how feasible that’ll soon be what with private companies now having access to space and given the big G’s resources…homebrew lunar probes might be a future thing like amateurs sending digital cameras to high altitude. That’s a thought, they could do an LEO panorama.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002290723598 Fred Penner

Some other great Google Street View Indoor discoveries here: http://www.streetviewfunny.com