Friday, February 25, 2011

One of my Dreams achieved - cross it off my bucket list


Nick & I began our adventure at 2am yesterday. We traveled to Titusville to view the last launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. We arrived at 6:30 to claim our great spot and spent the day with "a couple thousand of our closest friends". It was a fun atmosphere and excitement built as countdown approached. Communications from NASA were broadcast into the park. Around T minus 20min. it was announced there was a glitch with East coast computer screens & the mission was a "no go" until T minus 2min., at which point the NASA commander would make the final decision to "go" or scrub the mission... we could hear the Discovery commander saying they were ready to go, weather was a go, the glass tile was fixed after coming off during the locking of the hatch, Kennedy & Houston were a go... (I must admit I was praying hard) and at 2 min. we heard her say, "it's a go"! Count down continued until blast off at 4:50pm... we were able to see the ignition fire, the shuttle launching with a trail of orange fire (the narrator over the speakers announced that this fire could drain an average swimming pool in 25 seconds), and witnessed the boosters coming off as the shuttle separated ... soon we heard, "Discovery, you are in space".
Wow, it was emotional & AWESOME!... Nick captured this picture.
We arrived back at Ft. Myers at 1:45 this morning. Our van left Space View Park at 5:20 & traffic was so congested it took us until 10pm to reach the Orlando expressway... So we had a 23hrs. 45min. adventure for 4min. of viewing to the naked eye, I had binoculars so I watched for another 3-4min... as Nick says he loves me, but it was a once in a lifetime experience!... Incredible!
We kept in contact with Mom & Dad and they were able to view the launch from a fish camp near Mims... also a great time.

3 comments:

Grandpa and Grandma VD said...

You did a good describing the space launch. It was awesome. We had a great place to watch it at a fish camp secured by John De Young.
He grilled hamburgers, with all the trimmings. Karen De Young took pictures which you can view when we get home. Nick - thanks for being so kind to Karen.

Kelly Richards said...

I'm so glad you were able to go! I know you really wanted to see it!
It sounds like a great experience. Nice picture too.

Rudi said...

Very Cool!