It was launch day and I was already very excited the very moment I woke up. I am going to see a space shuttle with 6 people in it get shot into space, who wouldn’t be excited? During breakfast I was treated to local news coverage of the launch on TV and coverage of launch in the local newspaper as well. Getting to the launch on time would actually prove to be very difficult despite the people hosting the tweetup telling us there would be no traffic that early in the morning. We went though three security gates on the way to the tent and ended up missing the group picture in front of the clock. No big deal though, we had plenty of time before the launch was scheduled to occur.
Once in the tent we set our tweeting equipment again and started listening to the speakers that have been so gracious to come talk to us on the day of the launch. One of my favorite speakers was Astronaut Dave Wolf. He was a great at answering all of the questions from the tweetup crowd and also had no problem talking about ‘pooping’ in space; which of course everyone is secretly curious about that. Directly before the launch we also were privileged enough to hear Chris Meinert talk. He is a member of the closeout crew who had just returned from the launch pad after closing the hatch on Atlantis which was about to shoot into space in under an hour. It was touching to hear him talk about being the last person to see the astronauts on space shuttle Columbia. After he finished talking to us we all headed out to claim a spot to view the launch.
I luckily found an unobstructed view of the launch pad. I sat under some cameras that were setup on tripods. Graciously I assured their operators of the cameras that I would not get up in the middle of the launch and block their shot. So, with a clear view of the launch pad and my cameras ready to go, there was only one thing to do… wait. 10 minutes or so later the countdown started… 5…4…3…2…1! The shuttle started out shooting out what looked like a smoke cloud on both sides. After about a second or so I could see Atlantis begin to take off. Once in the air for a couple of seconds I started to hear a loud aluminium popping sound. Each pop that I heard I also felt it hit me like a sonic wave. I have never felt or seen anything like it in my life. After it hit the atmosphere and arched, the shuttle went behind it’s own cloud and was out of site for the rest of time that I was there.
The experience as a whole was absolutely amazing. I learned so much about NASA and space missions (past and future) that I’m sure it will prove to be very valuable in the near future. Also, I would like to thank everyone that helped with or had anything to do with the tweetup, it was a life changing event. If you have the chance to attend any event from NASA or are around the Cape Canaveral area stop in and say ‘hi’ to these nice folks, they are amazing people! I would like everyone to help support NASA in anyway they can, it is a great program and can help push America into the forefront of technology in the future. Thanks again NASA!
Tweet