Bender's Blog

For what has to be one of the coolest birthday gifts ever, Gayle arranged a trip to see the shuttle Atlantis launch on her last flight. She booked everything on her own, which is no small feat when you consider she had to book flights, a hotel and a rental car for a very popular destination in a short amount of time and managed to keep me completely in the dark as to where we were going and what we were going to do. I knew we were going somewhere. I even knew it was in Florida. I even gave her advice about certain aspects of the trip. I had no idea where we were going till she told me. And every time I thought I knew, something would happen or a piece of information would be disclosed that indicated I was way off. She literally kept me guessing until the last possible moment.

Being a geek, I’ve always been into space and the idea of space travel. When I was five I remembering pestering my Mom to take me to see this weird science fiction movie that had just come out called “Star Wars.” It was the first movie I remember going to. My mother was working at a company called United Technology at the time as office staff on a “big project.” Turns out this project was building components for the solid rocket boosters (SRB) for the first space shuttle, Columbia. This worked out great for me since UT would allow families to attend some of the test firings of the booster rockets. They tested these by putting them in the group upside down so the nozzle was pointing in the air. These tests were so cool; watching a giant burst of fire blast into the sky and hearing the deafening sound of the booster firing was geek heaven.

As an adult I’m sad to see the shuttle program coming to an end. Frankly I think it’s a mistake; we’re abdicating our position as a leader in space exploration and technology. Being someone with Libertarian leanings I understand the importance of allowing the private sector to begin working in space. But, and I understand this flies in the face of the plotline of every feel-good sci-fi story out there about the evil military, but the fact is that space is something that can be easily militarized and we have a national defense interest in space travel. What happens if a year from now North Korea launches a space shuttle? But, it looks like the program is coming to an end. I had always wanted to attend a shuttle launch, but never thought to actually try to go to one. With the program ending I just figured it was one of those things that I would miss. I’m glad I was wrong.

So what was it like?The launch was at 2:20 PM and right on time we could see a giant cloud of white smoke emerge from the base of the shuttle. A few seconds later the shuttle took off. Watching on TV I don’t think I ever really got a sense for how fast the shuttle takes off; it always seems to slowly climb past the tower into the sky. Being there I can tell you that once the ship breaks the inertia, it hauls ass! For about the first 45 seconds we just stood there watching. Then the sound hit us. It wasn’t the big, sudden "BOOM!” like I expected and experienced as a kid at the SRB test; it was kind of a VERY loud, rolling “GRRRRRR!” that only lasted about ten seconds. About that time the shuttle started making its “arc” towards entering orbit. It was so far away by this point that we were watching a small silvery dot ridding on plume of flame about 25 stories high. A few seconds after that the SRB’s shut down. We watched until the shuttle was too far away for us to follow. It was amazing!

We weren’t able to get into Kennedy Space Center for the launch. Gayle tried very hard to get us tickets, but even before the program was cancelled it was a difficult process that had you competing with thousands of other people who also really want to be there. Instead we were able to find a nice park across the river from the launch pad. I would guess we were about four to five miles away and had a good clear view of the shuttle on the pad. We got to the park about two and a half hours before the launch. We didn’t have to park far, and while the park already had a lot of people in it, I wouldn’t call it crowded. As more and more people started to arrive, Gayle and I entertained ourselves with some “people watching.” The crowd seemed to be a pretty diverse bunch, mixing locals and people who had come to town for the launch, as well as people (like us) who were “first-timers” and some people who have attended almost every launch.

Two days later we went to Kennedy Space Center and went on the tour. We saw a lot of really cool stuff; the Vehicle Assembly Building is HUGE, but you have to see it in person to really appreciate it. But I got a sense of sadness from a lot of the people there. They are witnessing the end of an area. And unlike the people who worked on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, there is no clear direction as to what, if anything, is next.

I had a great time! It was an amazing experience, and I hope to have an opportunity to watch whatever the next generations of space vehicle is take off one day.