I didn't fly this weekend - neither did the Space Shuttle - damn.
Dad and I have been talking about meeting in Florida for a Shuttle launch before the program ends. I've always wanted to watch a launch and the opportunities are dwindling. Dad has been a rocket enthusiast since he was a kid - building and launching model rockets in the 50's. A hobby he tried to get me to pick up. I was never much into model anythings, but I did enjoy flying rockets.
So, last month dad and I set on the June 13 scheduled launch for STS 127. We both waited until the last minute to make arrangements - just in case the mission was delayed. I made a reservation on Wednesday to fly to Orlando on Friday. Dad decided to drive - he was in Dallas visiting my sister.
Dad arrived on Thursday night and spent Friday getting information. Neither of us have seen a launch and since I struck out getting tickets, we needed to figure out where we could go to watch. Dad found out that we could get within about 6 miles at the astronaut hall of fame. There were 3000 tickets going on sale at 1:00 a.m.
I arrived in Orlando at 7:30, grabbed a bite to eat then hit the sack for a short nap. We left at 11:00 Friday night. When we arrived at the astronaut hall of fame, we were told that we could actually get onto the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center and watch there if we got there before 0100. So, we drove up the road to the space center.
What they do there is allow patrons to watch from a field on the grounds. Unfortunately, there is not a clear view of the shuttle on the pad (in fact, there are very few ways to see the shuttle on the pad - and that's pretty disappointing) but once it clears the tower, the space center is a good venue (supposedly).
Anyway, we paid our admission and entered the space center just past midnight. They were running bus tours until 0230, and since we had nothing else to do, we decided to take the tour. We had actually taken the tour when he and I went to the Daytona 500 in 2007.
First stop - the Saturn V display. We sat through a short film and then piled into a theater/mock up of the launch command center. Right in the middle of that presentation, my BlackBerry buzzed. I took a look and saw that the e-mail was a CNN Breaking News Alert. I knew before I even opened it that it was bad news about the Shuttle. Sure enough, at 1:30, less than 6 hours before the scheduled launch, the mission was delayed. That took the wind out of our sails.
Nevertheless, we finished the tour and then spent some time in the rocket garden playing with our cameras. I got some pretty interesting (at least to me) shots and a couple of great shots of the moon. we arrived back at our hotel at 4:45 a.m. and went to bed. After some sleep, we went exploring. We hit a professional camera store (a dying breed these days) and then had lunch in downtown Orlando by a lake with an impressive fountain. We then headed back to the coast to scout potential spots for dad to view the Atlas V launch on Wednesday and possible the Shuttle later that week. Unfortunately, I can't go back due to work commitments, so I will have to rely on his telling of the experience.
We came back to the hotel and dad hit the sack pretty early. Sunday was spent doing very little as I had a 3:00 p.m. return flight.
Here's hoping dad gets to see a couple of launches this week before he heads back to Texas. I sure wish I could join him.
Steve and I will take to the skies again next weekend.
