A Lifelong Dream Come True

Ever since I was a little girl, I've been amazed and awed by space. I used to have this little red telescope that had just enough magnification to see the moon, and I'd stare at it nights on end, wishing I could walk on it someday. Something about space is so magical to me, that I always wished I go up. My favorite movie as a kid was "Space Camp," an eighties movie, about these kids who go to Space Camp, and accidentally got launched into space. I wished so bad, someday that would be me. My dreams were dashed, as my eyes got bad, and I needed glasses. Having bad eyes, makes a person not as eligible to go into space, as the effects of no gravity actually make the eyeballs change shape, so even corrective surgery wouldn't work because the cuts would open from the eyeball changing shape. So unless I can have cut less eye surgery, it's a slim to none chance for me.

Anyways, the announcement of the Shuttle program coming to an end, broke my heart. Here we've developed the most sophisticated means of space travel, and have made so many advancements with our ships, that I was crushed that it was all over. Now, more than ever, I had to see this launch, because who knew if I'd get another chance in my lifetime. With some frequent flyer miles donated by my mom and sister, I was so happy to be able to get to Florida for this launch.

I followed the Shuttle readiness procedures for months, trying to figure if it would really launch when they said it would. The first launch date had already been pushed back becuase of the late launch of the previous shuttle, but the ship and astronauts were in tip top shape for the final launch. We rescheduled our tickets, and hoped with all our might that it would launch within the 5 days we'd be in Florida.

After several battles with the airlines, and rental car companies, we finally made it to Titusville, the closest place to watch a launch, without paying $5000 to watch it from the NASA causeway. We arrived the Thursday before the launch, which was scheduled for Friday July 8th at 11:26am. As soon as we could, we got to Kennedy Point Park, which I'd researched was about 11 miles away. We parked our car, and set up a tent to spend the night, and got front row seats. This was an adventure in itself. The only doubtful thing was the weather for the next day, as they wouldn't launch if the cumulus clouds were present. All night long, it rained on and off, and there were very strong winds. I was just hoping all this wind would blow a hole in the clouds, just long enough for launch. Many people were already set up and prepared to camp the night away to be there front and center for the morning's launch. They closed our parking lot at 6 that evening, and we didn't dare move our car for fear of loosing our spot. To get food, we walked a half mile to Walgreens, and a local gas station, for bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, waters, drinks, a microwave burger, Stoffers mac and cheese, and a cold deli sub for lunch. We weren't living in luxury by any means, but it filled our bellies. We brought a whole suitcase of camping supplies, a tent, cooler, camp chairs, a tarp, bug spray, so we could set up camp. It actually wasn't a bad night, it was cooler because of the rain, and not that buggy since we fogged our entier campsite.

This is a photo taken at night. I don't have the most professional camera, but it does the trick. You have to use your imagination a little, but the launch pad 39-A is lit on the left with the shuttle waiting for launch. We actually could see this pretty clearly, but the camera doesn't do justice to things big or far away. In the middle was the VAB (vehicle assembly building) where all the rockets and shuttles have been assembled over time. I don't know what was light up on the right, but it didn't matter. We were finally HERE, and awaiting one of the most memorable events of my whole life.
This picture was of the parking lot at dawn. We probably slept only about 5 hours before morning came, and folks walking in from the street really packed the park. But we had our camping chairs holding our spot, tied with twine to the railing in the front row. It was packed. People slept everywhere, cars, tents, on the ground, you name it, all to be there to witness history. It was pretty amazing. Reports said there were over a million people who came to watch the launch. We woke up to another cloudy day, but still had hope, as breaks in the clouds were expected, and we still had that strong wind...
One of my favorite things while waiting almost 6 hours was the wild life in the river. This is the Indian River, and Kennedy is actually on an island. On the other side is the Banana River. These rivers are brackish, some salt and some fresh water. We saw all sorts of cool animals. Dolphins were our main source of entertainment as they splashed around and played in the shallow water. Amazingly, we saw manatees, which was incredible. Their tails made like round circle marks in the water, and you'd just follow their "trail" until their little cute heads popped up for a breath. We were told that sting rays live in this water, but we didn't see any. On the shore we saw a dead horseshoe crab. In the air were my favorite birds, pelicans! There were even little lizards on the rocks in front of us, eating up the GIGANTIC potato bugs.
See, he's a welcome friend in the land of giant bugs that never die!
This guy had a great view. The actually allowed boats to go out in the water to watch the launch. That was probably one of the best views around. Do you know you can't get closer than 3 miles away from a launch? If you did, the vibrations would shake your heart out of rhythm, and that would be the end of it.
Here we are, really here! This was before my most major sunburn. I eventually took off my striped shirt, and put no sunscreen on because it was cloudy, cool, and my brain was elsewhere, and I got fried!
We got the most perfect camping spot of the park! This was the only grove of palm trees, which protected our tent from the rain and wind. Plus, it was super fun to camp under palm trees! We even tied our tarp over our tent to the 4 trees surrounding our tent as an umbrella, until the lines broke somewhere around 4am, and we had to put the rain fly back on. It was actually really fun to camp under the palm trees.
Early in the morning, people were lined up down the shore as far as you could see.
They walked in from the streets, and the park filled up fast.
Then the drama began. All morning, NASA was scrubbing the launch, and "go"ing for launch. Like every half hour the prognosis changed. About a half hour before launch time, they were "go" because there was a hole opening up in the clouds predicted to be over the launch pad at exactly 11:21-11:31, the launch window. If the shuttle didn't launch within this 10 minute window, it wouldn't be lined up right to meet up with the space station, and we'd be camping out another day or more until it launched. But, the abort landing site down the coast was determined a no go because of weather, but the flight director overrode this, for a go! Oh my gosh, there was just no way to predict the outcome of this one. The odds of another night or two under our palm trees was lurking. NASA had a helicopter scoping the air out, as well as several fighter jets making passes over the area, taking to the minute weather readings. This was really going to come down to the wire.

The buzz in the air was incredible. All of the people were so excited to be there. At 11:20, everyone stood up, and all eyes were on the launch pad. Our internet was inaccessible since everyone was trying at once for an update. At this point, no one knew if it would launch or not. All we could do was stare ahead, straining our eyes for any sort of ignition, and holding our breath. 11:21, 11:22, 11:23, 11:24, 11:25, 11:26 (nothing!!!), 11:27 (uh oh, what is going on?), 11:28, 11:29...pelicans fled the area!

And then all of a sudden, it began! A yellow light of sparks shone in the distance, and then just like that, we had lift off!!! It was incredible. By the time the shuttle clears the launch pad, it's already traveling 100 mph! But, strangely, it looked to the eye to move in slow motion. I thought if you blinked, you'd miss it, and actually took several pictures of the clouds, not realizing it was still much lower, but we got a good view the whole way up, until it disappeared into the clouds. Because of the clouds, we didn't get to see the shuttle curve or the SRB sep, but this didn't much matter. The whole crowd burst into cheers and applause, and many of us (including me) cried! It was entirely hard to believe what I just saw. Turns out the delay was a bad camera that they were able to fix and continue countdown. Everything worked out amazingly for the launch as scheduled. A few minutes later a big sonic boom came over us and lasted about 30 seconds. That was pretty cool to feel the shuttle in a small way. I will NEVER forget this as long as I live, and am so incredibly happy that it all worked out so we could be there.