Shuttle Launch Video

Jeff took a video at the launch. You can really see how it's incredibly bright and how it slowly becomes just a point of light.

Space Shuttle Launch!

On Monday morning, at 1:30 am, we again met up in the lobby and got on the bus to head to Banana Creek. The shuttle was scheduled to launch at 4:14am.

Again, we visited the Saturn V visitors center, and about 40 minutes before the flight, we headed to the bleachers. It was less crowded this time since so many people had left town on Sunday.

You could see the shuttle all lit up.

There was still some concern about weather, but lucky for us, the clouds cleared in time, so it was a 'go' for launch! They sang the national anthem with about 3 minutes to go, and then everyone shouted the count-down from 10 seconds. The launch was incredibly bright - It looks like daylight when it first leaves the pad. A few seconds after you see it lift off, you can hear a loud roar and feel the shaking from the sound waves. And then the shuttle gets farther and farther away until it basically just looks like a point of light. And then there are people in space. It's pretty amazing to see.

The clock keeps ticking after launch - you can continue to see the shuttle in the sky for quite a while, so we didn't leave until almost 10 minutes after launch.

Shuttle Launch - Attempt One

We got up on Sunday morning at 1:30am and headed to the lobby to catch the bus to our Shuttle Launch Viewing spot. (The launch was scheduled for 4:39am.) We were going to be watching from Banana Creek.

Near the Banana Creek viewing area, there is a big building with the Saturn V rocket (the one NASA used to get to the Moon during the Apollo program). In addition to the rocket, the building has lots of Apollo-related exhibits and a number of concessions areas.

Jeff and I grabbed some coffee and did some sight-seeing. The Saturn-V is pretty amazing!

Around 4am, we headed out to the bleachers to watch the launch.

You can see the shuttle all lit up across the water.

There's a big count-down clock at Banana Creek, so you can easily see what stage the launch is in. NASA has a number of holds during the count-down, the last of which is at "T minus 9 minutes" - that's what you can see on the clock here.

During the hold at nine minutes, they evaluate all the systems to make a final decision as to whether the launch is 'go' or 'no-go.' The discussion between the operators is played over a loud-speaker, so you can hear as they check in with all of the various groups. Unfortunately, due to weather, they decided that the launch was a no-go this night. (The weather problem was cloud-cover - there were lots of clouds relatively low in the sky. This is a problem, because if something goes wrong early in launch the astronauts have to do an emergency landing, and to do so they need to be able to see the landing strip and the ground - with low cloud cover, that's not possible.)

So, we got back on the bus and headed to the hotel - we got in around 6am and promptly fell asleep.

Then and Now

Some pictures from Kennedy Space Center from the three times I've been there - 5 years old, 11 years old, and 26 years old....

NASA Tour

This weekend Jeff and I flew down to Cape Canaveral, Florida to see the Space Shuttle Launch. We arrived on Friday night and met up with a bunch of friends and Space Policy Institute students.

On Friday night we went to a few space industry parties - it was nice to get some food and drinks and visit with all the people in town for the launch.

Saturday was one of the highlights of the trip - we went on a VIP tour of the NASA Kennedy Space Center.

We stopped at the public visitor's center first, which I visited when I was 5 years old, and again when I was 11, but not since. It was really neat to see the Rocket Garden, and other familiar spots.

They also had a new attraction called the Shuttle Experience, which was incredible. It's a fairly realistic recreation of what it's like to launch on the shuttle - the ride moves and vibrates and the screens show the view. On the way into the ride there are all sorts of explanatory videos about how the shuttle works. If you ever get a chance to try it, I'd highly recommend it!

The coolest part of the tour was our trip down to the launch pad. We got to get out and see the Space Shuttle on the launch pad - it was amazing to get to see it up close like that.

We saw the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) - which is one of the largest buildings, by volume, in the world. Inside the VAB is where they used to put together the Saturn V rockets for Apollo and where they now put together the Space Shuttle before rolling it out to the pad. We could even see the next shuttle being assembled in one of the bays.

After the VAB, we went to the International Space Station building, where the (few) remaining elements of the ISS are being kept in a clean room. It was pretty empty, since the ISS is almost complete, but still cool to see.

We had dinner at Dixie Crossroads in Titusville - a traditional thing to do before a launch. The seafood was actually pretty great!

From there it was back to the hotel, were we tried to get some sleep, since we would have to wake up at 1:30am to get on the bus and go to view the launch.