Atlantis sits on the pad in the early dawn hours

I really hoped I wouldn’t be tired when I woke up to get on the road but I wasn’t even a bit tired.  My son handled the 3:30am wake up call rather well.  It was my mother that woke us both us.  I don’t think she slept very well.  Our first destination was a local mall parking lot to get my son’s KSCVC (Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex) ticket.  We made the stop only to find out we had to travel to KSCVC to get the ticket.  We were given a name to ask for and off we went, again.

It was dark and following my GPS didn’t seem as reliable as following the signs since millions had been here before me.  I took the first exit that read KSC.  Upon taking that exit I realized it was the back way into KSC.  With such a high profile launch would it be closed off?  I was nervous and irritated but still followed the signs.  We got to a checkpoint and the guard was as happy as he could be.  He told me to keep the placard in the window and which way to go.  He said not to make any wrong turns and then laughed again.  Do not make any wrong turns: noted.

As we drove down a few winding roads we could see lights just on the horizon.  I knew that was the shuttle as it was always very well lit when being prepped during the night.  A couple of turns later we were pulling into KSCVC and we were routed to a parking spot.

We were here.  Would the weather cooperate?

We made our way to where we had to pick up our extra ticket and completed that transaction with no problems at all.  We then had to stand in line for security checks.  The air was soupy thick with humidity and I wondered how we’d stand waiting for launch.  It was nearing 5AM at this point and we were inside the Visitor’s Center.  After a bathroom break we made our way out towards the Rocket Garden and we would set up camp there.

It was so bizarre seeing so many people wide awake at such an hour.  I should say that most people were wide awake.  I saw more than a few people completely laid out trying to catch a snooze.  Once again, the question was if the weather would improve enough.

I would like to note that my phone had next to no service, despite having full bars.  The only thing I can pin it down to would be that some half a million other people were trying to get onto the same network.  A text here and there would make it through but it was folly to try and do anything else.  Phone was useless at this point but it would come in handy later.

The waiting game began as soon as we got there.  While we had plenty to do we were all there for the main event.  It seems there were the ones that weren’t very concerned with what was going on, how I do not know, and the ones that were obsessively trying to figure out what was going on.  I fit into the latter.  I had my phone, which was useless as a source of info due to the data network but the biggest info updates came via the P.A. system.  A couple of guys behind us had a scratchy radio that would cut in and out.  We mostly just sat and waited.

As T-0 drew nearer, we began to look at the sky more and more.  It was looking promising and given that the previous 12-14 hours looked terribe, we’d take it.  The clouds seemed to be pushing out over the ocean and a clear patch was directly above us and to the west.  Weather forecasters were still unsure if any rain shows might pop up inside of the 15 mile radius.  We crossed our fingers and to lighten things up we went and ahead and gave our go for launch.  Would they listen to us?  Doubt it!  T-0 was 11:27AM EST and it was fast approaching.

It’s strange how the atmosphere began to get really charged at around 30 minutes to T-0.  Whereas people had been wandering and exploring, they began to flock to their camped out areas and wait contently.  Add us to that bunch but I couldn’t sit still and just wait, so I kept popping over to the nearby PA speakers to listen to the commentators on NASA TV.  The polling of all the groups is one of the most exciting parts for me.  That signifies that it’s really about to go down, assuming  no one says “no go”.  Mike Leinbach was the launch director and he was the one that made the final call.  After having made the rounds he finally got to Houston Flight.  They said to keep going around to poll others and to come back to them.  That made my heart skip a beat but when Mike came back to Houston they said that for the record they were “go”.  I little voice in my head silently shouted “yes!”  I felt like I was on the team that had scored the touchdown to give us the lead yet with time still on the clock, the game wasn’t over!

Now we found our way back to our spot and waited.  The next big event would be coming out of the T-9 hold.  Once the countdown from there began it was a fully automated process and no other holds were built in.  For all intents and purposes, once it started, you’d see a launch in 9 minutes.   I held my breath as it drew near and just like that the clock read 8:59, 8:58, 8:57… It was really happening.  I could hardly contain myself I was probably blabbering like a fool though I don’t recall acting that way.  During this part of the countdown we would encounter several milestones.  A few being retracting of the arm that fuels the external tank, switching to internal power, pressurizing tanks and having the astronauts close and lock their visors.  Everything was going as planned until T-0:31.

The damn thing stopped

At 31 seconds until liftoff the clock suddently stopped.  My stomach sank and a groan eminated from the crowd.  All this way, all this time and all for nothing?  It was the nightmare scenario of it coming down to the final seconds and it being scrubbed because maybe a bird landed on the tank or something obscure and unforseen had happened.  We could hear controllers rambling on about something but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.  Before I could really catch on a cheer erupted from the crowd.  Ok, that’s good, I’m assuming that’s good, right?  At that point I could hear the controllers saying they’d like to resume the countdown.  At that point I was nearing being in tears from joy.  I didn’t know why the clock had stopped but who cares as long as it goes up!  The slight delay pushed the launch time back by about 2 minutes to 11:29AM.

Tunnel vision

The controller came over the PA and said the countdown would resume on his mark; 3, 2, mark!  The clock was moving again and whereas it had seemed to drag on and on for hours, the final few dozen seconds were flying by.  My mind was racing, my heart was racing.  I had no idead how I would react to what I was about to see.

10 seconds

The igniters start up to burn off excess hydrogen that might have gathered under the vehicle

7 seconds

Go for main engine start.  We all watched the three main engines roar to life on the big screen television near the rocket garden.  My heart was pounding and we had all started to count down with the commentator, George Diller.

6

5

4

3

2

Suddenly everyone stopped counting as maybe we all held our breath…

0

Atlantis lifting off one last time marking the final space shuttle launch ever.

LIFTOFF!

Cheers erupted and I think we all lost our minds momentarily as we watched it jump off the pad with a jolt.  We were 8 miles from the pad so the sound would take some time to reach us but we’d easily be able to see Atlantis clear the building in front of us.  We were all straining our eyes looking…looking and finally, there she was.  Atlantis came out from behind the IMAX building.  My first thought was “WOW that thing is hauling ass!”  though I think I only said “WHOA!”.

There it was.  There we were.  We had finally done it.  We gazed upon the shuttle in flight one last time with millions of other people sharing one common goal; to witness history.  It was short lived though as the low cloud deck would soon swallow her up and allow to to ride into the heavens with a bit of privacy.  The show wasn’t over yet because shortly after going into the clouds, the sound came.  What a sound it was.  It’s hard to describe, really.  It wasn’t loud so much as it was deep.  It was the deepest, lowest sound I’d ever heard and felt.  It shook everything from the buildings to the ground to your ear drums.   My grin stretched from ear to ear and my mom and I hugged each other.  My son wasn’t quite 8 years old yet and he hadn’t fully understood what he was witnessing but he was into it and carrying on with everyone else.

It wasn't long before Atlantis vanished into the clouds. Snapped this by just pointing and clicking. Not bad!

Relax and enjoy the show

We watched Atlantis ride into orbit on the big screen.  Most people had started to scatter before then but I traditionally watched all eight and a half minutes of the ascent.  Today was no different.  It was only after that we began to call people and text people.  My cousin had texted me and said he heard it was going up and wished the best.  My wife said she was crossing fingers as well.  I was so glad it went up so I could offload my excitement to them.  I hadn’t relaxed in so long it was like taking a deep breath.  At that point, nothing mattered to me.  Life was good, despite the lingering possibility of having to have my gallbladder removed.  I would let nothing rain on my parade.  It was a great day and I was going to relish it.

I’ll make one more blog entry to sum it all up and also I’ll explain what caused the T-31 hold in the first place.

Launches would come and go and each time I’d ruminate as to whether I should attempt one.  These wouldn’t be planned out attempts.  They would be midnight runs so to speak.  Driving down, watching and driving right back.  I’d been there before and that just didn’t sound too appealing.  The ever so present threat of coming up empty handed put that thought to rest each time.

I didn’t miss a single launch, be it television or webcast.  I take that back.  I did miss the initial lift-off of a 4am launch.  Seriously, can you blame me?  I woke up right as the throttle up call was made.  Oops!  I watched it go into orbit and then passed out.

The End of an Era

Patch for the penultimate flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Notably carrying the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)

We all knew this year was coming.  It was mandated by President George W. Bush to retire the shuttle. This isn’t something I disagreed with, actually.  The timing was off and politics as usual don’t help.  Change is hard but it’s harder when there is nothing to change to.  Constellation was in trouble from the get go.  So, instead of having a system in the test phase, we’re left with one seemingly meaningless test of the Ares I-X in 2009.  All things said, a rocket is a rocket and I enjoyed every second of that test.  I would like to note that just a couple of days ago NASA released it’s heavy lift plans.  I’ll post about that another time.

Three launches were set for this year.  Each flight would be that vehicle’s last.

Discovery was first up, followed by Endeavour and finally Atlantis.  As each one landed it would never see space flight again, save for the dreams of those who wished to touch the night sky in such a beautiful machine.

The February launch of Discovery was out of the question.  My job has me tied up for the first two months of the year.  It would have been a nightmare.  Discovery would go up without me at the Cape.

The Endeavour launch was especially tempting as it was a late spring launch.  A gut feeling had me reconsider.  I don’t believe in superstitions but I decided I would not attempt this one and watch, once more, via web.  My decision paid off.  The initial launch was delayed. A woman that works at my same company actually attemped that launch.  I know that feeling all too well.  I believe that one was pushed back more than two weeks.  Again, this one went up with me watching from a tiny computer screen.

Atlantis

The gravity of the situation really hit me after Endeavour made it’s final “wheel stop” on the shuttle runway.  There was just one final launch of the shuttle; ever.  It was at that point I knew it was launch or nothing.  I was going to have to pull all the stops.  I can safely safe I knew I wasn’t alone in my mission.

For the better part of June I spent hours researching, planning, debating, and otherwise pulling my hair out trying to assure this attempt would succeed.  The pressure was intense and I wasn’t even one of the astronauts!  The 4.5 million pound gorilla in the room was Atlantis itself.  Even the best planned trip would be nothing if it didn’t go up.  I couldn’t think about what might not happen.  I had to think about what I wanted to happen.

STS-135 Parking Placard - Collectors items? I think so!

This was all we needed:

• A place to stay
• Tickets to KSC

It sounds easy enough.  Tickets weren’t a big deal.  I got KSC tickets with little problem though they were expensive.  I didn’t make in the lottery of initial cheaper tickets. There are tour companies that are given tickets also and I ended up paying premium prices for them.  Honestly, it was a one time deal.  It was all or nothing.  So, tickets? Check!

A place to stay was a different story.  Every single hotel, motel, tent, cave, hut, box or habitable structure was rented out for 30 miles all around Titusville.  Keep in mind, Titusville isn’t a tourist Mecca.  It’s a small town that just happens to be across the water from Kennedy Space Center (KSC).  I scoured rental sites.  I scoured craigslist and even put up a wanted ad for a place.  It would be my mother, son and myself. I emailed condo owners and even considered renting a place for the entire MONTH just for an event that would last minutes.  I kept coming up empty and it looked like Orlando would be our only bet.  Not terribly far but far for driving in at 3:00AM.  I made my reservations and settled for Orlando

A couple of days later I got an email from one of the condo owners that she had a guest house she’d be willing to rent.  The best part? It was just a few miles from KSC.  The rocket gods smiled upon for once during this ordeal.  The price was right.  The location was right.  To top it all off, I bought a parking placard so we could park at Kennedy, rather than take a bus in.

We were all set to go.  Or were we?  In the next post I’ll talk about how it all nearly fell apart from something I would have never suspected.

We made all the arrangements with travel, lodging, tickets, and everything.  Luckily we reside in Georgia so we don’t live very far away, relatively speaking.  STS-115 was going to be our target and this time I only thought it was fitting to bring my mom along.  We loaded up and got underway the day BEFORE the launch.  I wasn’t taking chances this time around.  I will note that we had our oldest son with us at the very patient and quiet age of THREE.

Scrub #2 was in the books.  Atlantis would launch a couple of weeks later with no issues.  Once again, I watched from home.

Next attempt wouldn’t happen for well over a year for STS-120.  Again, arrangements made, tickets bought and we were set.  The day came to leave and I second guessed the weather.  Probability of launch being scrubbed due to weather was around 60%.  Not good odds.  Also working against me was limited time off from work and limited money to use for lodging.  I made the decision to stay put for one day.  It cost me big time.  Launch was a go.  A hole opened up and Atlantis was cleared for launch.  I was, again, stunned.  My luck in trying to catch a launch was laughing at me.  We watched from home, again.  I’ll note that the cloud deck was low and the shuttle was only visible for maybe 10-15 second after clearing the pad.  I didn’t feel completely jipped – despite having wasted money on tickets.  The only thing that helped me keep sanity was knowing our view would have been blocked by the clouds anyway.  It wasn’t that good of an excuse but I talked myself into believing it.

Attempt #3, which was supposed to be a scrub, was now in the books.  For the third time in a row, I had watched from home.

That last attempt was fall of 2007.  It would be nearly 4 more years before I made one final attempt; an attempt that nearly fell apart at the last minute.

The Space Shuttle lifts off at night. The same photo that is on my shirt.

I knew this day was rapidly approaching; the day the shuttle program would come to a close.  This journey began almost exactly 5 years ago.  I’m going to do a number of posts to chronicle the journey because one just isn’t enough.  That or one would be way too long.  So, here’s how it all started.

From the beginning

I was doing some laundry one day and I picked up a shirt my mother had given me as a gift.  It was a black t-shirt with a screen print of a night launch on it.  The words NASA were faded in the background.  I looked at the shirt for a minute and it hit me: I want to see this.  In an instant, my infatuation was born.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been a fan of space exploration and science.  This was different, like a light-bulb lit up.

I stopped everything (sorry, laundry!) and went straight to my computer.  I did a search for anything to do with launches and to my utter amazement, Discovery (STS-121) was set to go up in only a few days.  I had no idea what I was in store for!  I told my wife we were going to Florida to see a launch with about 3 days notice.  She never turned down the idea of a spontaneous road trip.  Though she was surprised I suggested it since that’s usually not my style.  On top of that,  I had no idea where I was going, when to get there, where to look or anything.

The day, Saturday, July 2nd, arrives and the launch is slated for mid afternoon, I think a bit before 4pm.  I figured we’d leave at 8am and 8 hours of driving would be plenty fine.  Wrong!  The drive was uneventful until we reached Orlando and then it all hit the fan.  I kept wondering why the hell all of these people were in the road, on the road, on overpasses.  What were they all looking for?  It was the ultimate “duh!” moment.  They were all here for the launch.  Even from this far out people had begun to line up for it.  I had no idea it was that popular!

We listened in on the local radio station and with minutes to spare, the launch was scrubbed due to the weather.  Not a bad thing because we were still stuck in traffic, 25 miles out and with overcast skies.  I doubt we’d have seen anything and certainly wouldn’t have heard it.  The drive down was long but the drive back was longer.  We had left around 8am and after nonstop driving we arrived home shortly after 1AM on Sunday morning.  I had been defeated but I chalked it up to learning and a little road trip never hurt.

The Rocket’s Red Glare

The following Monday, July 4th, I called my mom up and told her they were about to launch Discovery.  We chatted on the phone through a good chunk of the countdown.  The entire time I’m getting more and more nervous.  Why was I getting nervous?  It was the most bizarre thing.  As the countdown passed into 9 minutes and counting I started pacing.  You’d have thought I had personal stock in this thing going up.  It’s understandable though when you think about it.  You’re watching humans go into space.  They’re sitting atop a machine thats filled to the brim with explosive propellants.  Margin for error: close to 0.  Anything goes wrong and it’s likely that you bought the farm.  Ok, so maybe our nerves were justified.  Also this was only the second flight post Columbia.

As the minutes passed I settled down a little and I remember going into the final 60 seconds.  This tunnel vision came over me.  I was just staring at the screen watching intently.  The whole time I’m still jabbering with my mom.  We were making jokes because we both seemed to be jittery.

T-31 and GLS (ground launch sequencer) was go for auto sequence start.  This is the point where the shuttle takes over and everything runs internally.  Seconds seemed to stretch out and yet they flew by in a blur.  Before I knew it the engines roared to life.  Seconds later the solid rockets lit and it was off the pad.  All I could think was “GO!”.  I didn’t speak a word for several seconds until the throttle up call, to which we always held our breath (It was after throttle up that Challenger exploded).  I think our conversation consisted of a few “wow”s and “go”s.  It was a picture perfect launch.  I knew the next big event was solid rocket jettison and once it occurred I started to breathe again.

I contently watched the entire ascent.  It was beautiful.  To see man and machine working together so harmoniously was poetry in motion.  I’ll also note that seeing a launch on the 4th of July made it that much better.  How could any other fireworks compare to the greatest show on Earth?

The next thing I thought was “I really gotta see this!”

In the next post I’ll talk about just how hard it is to see a launch in person.

Voyager 1 is our messenger to the stars beyond our own.  In a few years it will officially reach interstellar space.  At that point, our Sun will be nothing more than a point of light in the sky.  The Sun will likely have no influence on the spacecraft at that point.  She’ll keep forging ahead until she collides with another celestial body.  Given the expanse of space, that could take eons.  Imagine how far it will have traveled by then.  Here is a writeup from JPL that I’m going to copy/paste because, seriously, why re-invent the wheel eh?

NASA Probe Sees Solar Wind Decline
12.13.10

The Voyagers were built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft. For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager . JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Here is the link to the original article.

It was Carl Sagan who suggested Voyager 1 take one last photo of Earth before it diminished into the void of space.  Voyager 1 gave us the Pale Blue Dot;  A tiny portrait of everything that every Earth-bound creature has ever known and will know, for some time.

Profound?  Yes.  Yes, it is.

Keep carrying the torch for space exploration, Voyager 1.  Thanks to all the men and women involved in such a great mission.

I’ve done this for the past two weeks and it’s been eye opening.  I was much more mindful of what I ate.  The intake was lower than it would have been but it wasn’t balanced.  My fat/carb/protein ratio is wonky.  I am way high on carbs, high-ish on fat and abysmal on protein.  This week my aim was to bring that more into balance.

Thus, the great experiment starts.  If I can thoroughly track my intake and expenditure then, theoretically, I can track my results with low margin of error.  Weight loss isn’t magic.  Waving a wand doesn’t work, unless it’s a 20lb wand that I wave vigorously for 20 minutes.  Don’t get me started on how insane the shake-weight looks!

They’re all worth listening to and done quite well.  This one is no different:

Yes, I’m a scienthusiast.

I guess it could be hyphenated  sci-enthusiast?  Maybe scien-thusiast?  Either way, I looked around Google briefly and it’s possible I thought of this before billions of other people?  Maybe it’s some horrible word that I shouldn’t use?  Nah, it’s great!  It describes me quite fittingly, I think.

So there, it’s my word.  It’s OK, you can borrow it.  I expect royalties though!

What to do with it?  Well, I think the world needs more enthusiasm for science.  Not to solve every lurking problem in our lives but to better understand how the world around us works.  Some mysteries shall remain so.  There are some exceedingly complex things in the Universe that aren’t really practical for everyone to know.  Unless it’s your job to know them, that is.

So, perhaps one of my goals in life is to help spread the word of science; Turn people on to how it all works, at a fundamental level.  It always goes back to a quote from Carl Sagan.  Roughly, we live in a world filled with technology.  So few people understand how it all works.  You don’t have to be a scientist to understand.  You simply have to open your mind to it.  When people learn how things actually work, it’s usually one of those “wow…” moments.

In saying that, remember, we can’t let go of reason for madness.  There was a time when people who studied the heavens feared retribution.  Good people were arrested, exiled or even killed for observing something knowable versus believing in something we couldn’t know.  It might seem insane to think that could happen again, but remember as a species, we’re very young.  There are a lot of good and honest people out there that speak for science.

Science is interesting because it changes based on observation.  In that sense, our view of the world has evolved, as our methods and tools have evolved.  The next few decades should prove to be very exciting in the realm of understanding.  How the forefathers of great thinkers should like to be alive today to have a glimpse at what we know.  How the great thinkers of our future might look back and realize how primitive our thinking was.  Each new generation stands on the shoulders of giants from the previous.

Life; space; time; the Cosmos; all encompassing and all waiting to be discovered and understood.  We are, in a way, how the Universe understands itself.

We, as the human race, must keep it going.  If we’re not to be scientists, we should at least be enthusiastic about science.

Enter: The Scienthusiast.

Eventually, one day, our destiny will lie somewhere in space. Perhaps another planetary body in this solar system or even another star system. That is, if we don’t blow ourselves up or suffer a cataclysmic set back.

The recent White House budget leaves me both concerned and yet I see an opportunity to be optimistic. I’ve been reading forums to get people’s takes on this. Mind you this is coming from people who work in the industry to plain people like myself. It is inevitable that politics gets head-firsted into the mix. I made that slang up. Nice eh? I guess there is no way around it but the degree of “This was Bush’s fault!”; “This was Griffin’s fault”; “Obama sux!” is just a little much.

I try my damnedest to take a middle road approach. I want science. I want exploration. I want a manned flight program (also termed HSF for Human Space Flight). At the moment we have it with Shuttle. In a few short months, it will be done and gone. What happens after that? We’re grounded, at least humans are.

Private companies are really getting into the mix of things which does excite me. Thing is, they’re a ways off from manned flight. It will happen, just not quite soon as we’d like.

Constellation is dead. I’m sad and yet I can understand this move. Some claim to have had the insight or ESP enough to know it was doomed from day one. I think having a pessimistic attitude isn’t very healthy. I don’t work in the industry, I follow it from a few rows back. I can say that my interest is important, not as a single entity but gathered with the combined interest of persons just like myself. Lack of public interest will kill a program deader than dead. Apollo anyone?

So, I thought about the cancellation of that program and realized, ok, maybe this isn’t as bad as it seems. I’m still icky feeling about not having the ability to put humans up but lets think this out. The downfall of Constellation was reaching back to the past to sort of re-use older technologies or at least model from them. What we need are newer technologies that are laced with our learnings of the past.

I think the biggest technological advance we need is in propulsion. Chemical rockets are dandy at getting heavy vehicles off the ground and into space but once in space you need something else. Something that’s less cumbersome, less prone to failure and has some oomph! These technologies should be researched to make Moon and Mars missions faster. Transit time to Mars is MONTHS. With new propulsion you could get it down to weeks; or so I’ve heard.

So, new technologies and private companies. I think I actually like the sound of that. Will they deliver? The talk is there, the walk is yet to come.

More notes on the budget are promised robotics and planetary missions. This is very exciting to me. Rovers are great tools for science! Just look at Spirit and Opportunity; they vastly outlived their planned mission time. If we had a mission going up every other month, I’d be stoked.

A final note about canceling the Moon program. Listen, we’ve been there before. Yes, actual people walked on the actual Moon. That program was initially a race; a race we would win. After that, you had a group of giddy scientists drooling over the prospect of getting some precious samples back. That came later and Apollo XVII was the final Moon-shot. We never spent more than a couple of days there. When we go back, we need to plan on STAYING for a length of time. Weeks, not days.

China wants to go there. Let them go, plant their flag and then come back. It’s a great thing for a country. I’d applaud them for it. As the saying goes “been there, done that”. It’s time we went a step ahead. That way when countries are landing and planting their flags, we can wave at them from our cozy Moon habitats. From that point we can build on and then eyeball Mars or even asteroids.

So, finally, it’s bittersweet for me. I wanted to see Constellation work but ultimately I want to see anything work. I’ll hold on the promise of some serious R&D and science missions. I’ll hold on to private companies keeping us in orbit too. It’s a big time shake up of things. Perhaps it was needed.

Obama says we need to get young people into science and math. I couldn’t agree more. If he truly means this then he needs to deliver on this budget. NASA has inspired generations of people. Let’s keep it that way.

If this flops as a dud and our space program is left floundering for years, I’ll be one mad space cadet. >:o

Use the keyboard to move left or right for a smoother experience. The largest things in the Universe are mind boggling. The really fascinating stuff is all of the tiny things that go into making the world around us. You can see how small a neutrino is for instance; and why it passes unhindered through just about everything (including entire planets!).

The music is very pleasant too.