Picture of the Day for 5/16/2011. I'm severely sleep deprived. I took a red-eye flight to Florida that left on Saturday night (arriving Sunday morning) and the tour company taking people to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) required us to arrive at the Orlando pick-up location (45 miles away from the KSC) at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night for the 8:56 a.m. space shuttle launch the following Monday morning. (Sorry- that was a little convoluted.) That's two nights without sleep (except for an hour nap here and there). We were required to leave so early in order to give Homeland Security time to inspect all the buses going out to the viewing location on the NASA causeway. We were dropped off at the visitor center complex at about 12:30 a.m. and then asked to re-board the bus at 4:00 a.m. The photo above shows the extremely long line to get into the KSC.
I met up at the KSC with my friend Aurora who had a launch viewing ticket with another tour company. It was fun having a friend to hang out with for a few hours. The visitor center complex was open throughout the entire night to accommodate all the visitors. It was an interesting experience picking up souvenirs at the gift shop at 2:00 a.m. The ambience was completely different than the other two times I've been at the KSC on a launch day which has been during the daytime. The crowd tonight was smaller and much more subdued. Pictured below is the rocket garden under a nearly full moon.
So, back on the bus at 4:00 a.m. I made sure I wasn't the last one to arrive like the last time on April 29. I had a lovely seatmate on the bus, an 80-year-old woman named Virginia who was there with her daughter and son-in-law. On the way out from Orlando to the KSC, she was telling me that even though she's 80, she's up for an adventure and can keep up with her younger traveling companions. She was also excited to be staying up all night. When I boarded the bus at 4:00 a.m., Virginia was already there, but her eyes were closed. I didn’t want to disturb her so I started to sit in another row, but Virginia heard my voice and jumped up so I could sit next to her. Her daughter told me that Virginia had been waiting for me to return. Very cute.
We arrived at the viewing location on the NASA causeway while it was still dark. Below is a tiny image of the shuttle on the launch pad, illuminated by floodlights. (Double-click on the photo to enlarge it.)
Our bus let us off at a location where the launch pad was obscured by an island in the middle of the Indian River which separates the launch pad from the causeway. By the time I was able to walk to a spot with a clear view of the shuttle, there were crowds of people who had already staked out the prime viewing areas. The pictures below show what I’m talking about.
I had invested waaaaaay too much time and money in this endeavor (ha- that’s a little space humor for you- the shuttle that went up today is Endeavor) to risk having someone’s head block my view of the launch. I searched until I found what had to be the last remaining spot in the front. I ruthlessly stepped on a lot of toes to reach that spot, but I didn’t care. I was single-minded in my goal.
Eventually the sun rose over the Indian River.
Below are pictures of the shuttle in the early morning light.
There were several interesting sights to see while waiting for the launch that I wasn’t quick enough to capture on camera. A couple of dolphins swam by. Very cool. A hawk plunged into the river and came up with a fish in its talons. Also very cool.
Just like the KSC at night, the atmosphere on the causeway today was very different than in February. February’s launch was a nail-biter as it was literally down to the last minute before the shuttle was given clearance to go. This one was very low-key. NASA piped in the sound from mission control and there were never any hiccups during the countdown.
I stuck to my goal of not taking any pictures during the launch. During February’s launch, I was so concerned with photographing the event that I kind of missed out on the experience. I swore this time I would just watch and experience the launch. Turned out to be an excellent plan. Below is just about the only photographic evidence I have that I was there.
Even if I had wanted to take pictures, I would have been disappointed. There was a lot of cloud cover and the shuttle quickly disappeared from view. High up you could see the shuttle’s contrail through a break in the clouds. It was about that point in the ascent that the booming/bone-rattling sound waves finally reached us. The sound kind of crackles- it's rather hard to describe. I think it was the sound that turned me into a bona fide shuttle launch viewing junkie. It’s a good thing there’s only one more launch before the shuttle program is discontinued; otherwise, I’d probably go bankrupt spending all my money on coming out to see as many launches as possible. What a high.
