It's 4:05 in the morning and we're standing in an open field outside of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. There's a growing excitement in the air, and we can feel the heightening energy of the crowd despite the 40-degree chill of the weather. Hey waitaminute... you ever get that déjà vu feeling? Like this all sounds too familiar? Maybe it's a glitch in the Matrix... or maybe, just maybe, we've done this before. Yep, just 24 hours ago, we were camped out in the cold anxiously awaiting the Space Shuttle launch. Twenty four hours later, we're camped out in the cold anxiously awaiting the Space Shuttle launch. I know, not much has changed. This time, though, we have faith it's gonna happen. We just need to think happy thoughts.
It's T-minus 9 minutes to launch, the weather's looking good, and to the cheers of the delighted crowd, Mission Control just announced that everything is a go. Anticipation is mounting. Our happy thoughts must be working! The final countdown has at long last begun, and we can feel the electricity in the early morning air. Not a single voice isn't counting down with the clock... "3, 2, 1, ignition!!" A faint, but surging light appears on the horizon. A distant rumbling grows louder. "We have liftoff!" a voice announces over the speakers. There's a collective gasp from the audience as the Space Shuttle Endeavour lights up the night like a fire in the sky. The searing heat from the shuttle's engines fills the heavens with a bright orange glow. Night suddenly turns into day, as though sunrise was set on fast forward. 
The roar of the blast finally catches up with its glow. The rumbling, like the crackling of thunder, grows louder and more intense as the shuttle reaches and then shatters the sound barrier. Accelerating to 17,500 mph in a matter of seconds, Endeavour carves a brilliant trail high into the sky. Suddenly, the booster rockets detach and begin their slow descent back down to Earth. For two minutes, we're frozen, with our heads tilted up towards the stars watching in complete and utter awe. As the shuttle rockets towards space, its once mighty light begins to fade... traveling further away with each second, growing smaller, glowing dimmer... until fittingly, Endeavour becomes one with the starry sky. Wow.Random Stuff:
- The shuttle was like 220 miles away in about two minutes... almost as fast as Vic's driving.
This is the last-ever Space Shuttle night launch. Yep, they're retiring the Space Shuttle program this year. Boooo!- We meet a guy who claims to have seen every single shuttle launch. According to him, this was the most beautiful ever. We agree.
Rocket GardenSpace Shuttle Endeavour STS-130 Launch
0 comments:
Post a Comment