Many people don’t realize, until they’ve actually been there, that the space shuttle takes off from the middle of a wildlife preserve. The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is officially an “overlay” of the Kennedy Space Center, and has been since 1963. At the Space Center, you see vultures landing outside the exhibit halls and alligators swimming in the pond in front of an office building. One of the tour bus drivers calls the 5000 gators an “unpaid security system” and says they’re doing a good job. (They’re also the only part of the security system you’re allowed to photograph.)

Building a spaceship launch facility in a wildlife refuge seems like a strange idea at first. Yes, it’s a good way to set up a wide human-free zone around the launch pad, which is necessary for safety and security. But there’s also the animals’ safety to think about. That is a concern for NASA, which uses sirens and other “measures” to warn animals away from the launch pad at dangerous times. It doesn’t always work, though – a bat clung to the space shuttle Discovery as it took off, and probably died somewhere up in the atmosphere.

But most of the animals at Merritt Island seem to realize that the weird human activities that sometimes happen in their habitat aren’t meant to harm them. Like animals in any preserve, they wander around fearlessly for anyone to see. I’m told even the feral hogs, which the refuge is trying to control by trapping, come close enough to be photographed.

You also may see manatees and rarely-seen birds like the roseate spoonbill (one for the serious birdwatchers, though the rest of us think it’s a pretty color).

So, Merritt Island is not just about space – it also celebrates Earth.