BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — There's a new piece of history preserved in the Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center, a 109-foot tall, 340,000-pound Gemini-Titan rocket.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex trucked the rocket in from a warehouse in Tucson, Arizona. It took two massive cranes nearly an hour to hoist a Gemini capsule 80 feet to the top of the Titan rocket.
Rockets like it sent two-man crews into orbit around the Earth in 1965-1966.
"This was the intermediate mission between Mercury and Apollo, and without this program we would not have been able to fly those Apollo missions," said Andrea Farmer, Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex.
At times, the hoisting process seemed tedious.
"It does look impossible, but I think they can do it," tourist Liz Hentzman said.
The rocket is now part of the collection of seven other vintage rockets in the Rocket Garden at the Visitors Complex, including the Mercury Redstone and Mercury Atlas.
At 109 feet, it's still less than half the size of the 224-foot Saturn 1-B; space shuttles are 122 feet.
The Visitors Complex is also hoping to add either shuttle Endeavor or Atlantis to its collection, but close to a dozen other organizations around the country are vying for them, too.
WFTV
