02-07-10 Titusville FL STS 130 Shuttle Launch

[Rick] After going to bed at 0600, we finally got up around 1000. Basically we lolled around all day with Betsy taking the car to Sears and other places for window shopping.

Around 1700, Gregg Addams and his lovely wife Lynda paid us a visit on the boat. Gregg works in Change Management for BB&T and he and his wife had driven down to see the shuttle. Since he is following our blog, he knew we were at the Titusville Municipal Marina. It was great to talk to someone from the past and catch up on BB&T in Wilson. Here is a picture of Rick and Gregg.
















I watched the Super Bowl while Betsy napped. I thought the game was one of the best ever. Congratulations to the NFC South Super Bowl Champs, The New Orleans Saints. On on their first Super Bowl try, no less.

Around Midnight, we went over to the viewing area again for the next try of launching the shuttle. There were many less people there tonight. Just one side of the road was used. As before, people milled around, slept, set up cameras and waited for the news. An hour before liftoff, the chance of a "GO" was only 50%. Weather conditions in Titusville were fine, but there was some concern about the 3 abort sites. At least one of them has to have acceptable weather in order for the launch to happen. So we were on edge right up until the final minute.
















Then the magic time arrived...0414. Suddenly on pad 39A, a huge fireball filled the night horizon. The Endeavour Spaceship, carrying 6 brave souls lifted into the night. Even though they were rising, it was perfectly silent. As the spacecraft lifted, approximately 75 seconds after liftoff, an enormous roar filled the air. It was exactly like the roar on the simulator we experienced two days ago. The flight lifted to the Northeast, entered some clouds and continued into its planned orbit. Below are the pictures in the sequence we saw the flight.




Launch pad 39A before liftoff














Ignition















Liftoff















Clearing the tower














The Roar Begins from 8 miles away

Entering the clouds

Break in the clouds

The shuttle, now going 17,500 mph and entering orbit

Once it was out of sight, we got in the car and had a much quicker exit than the night before when the crowds had been so thick. We were in bed by 0500, and slept in this morning.

02-07-10 Shuttle Launch

4:59AM...We're back on the boat from a SUCCESSFUL, BEAUTIFUL SHUTTLE LAUNCH. More tomorrow...now to bed.

Betsy

02-06-10 Titusville, FL - Shuttle Launch Attempt 1

[Rick] We began the day at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. This building and exhibit recalls man's journey into space by way of astronaut personal items, memorabilia, exhibits, and personal stories. The exhibits cover the entire span of American Space Exploration from Mercury to Genesis to Apollo to The Shuttle. The building and entrance is impressive. Just inside the main door is a statue of Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard, the first American in space and one of the famous Mercury 7 Astronauts. Many of the exhibits are personal. Things like photos, diaries, and personal correspondence of the brave men and women in space.




































Betsy did her best to help the space program by operating one of the consoles that was used in the Mercury program. This is not a replica, it is one of the original consoles from Houston. Many of the exhibits are the "real deal"

















One of the most striking exhibits is this one from the Apollo program. These words are prophetic as the three astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee perished in an on board fire as they prepared to launch in Apollo 1 in 1967.

















"If we die, we want people to accept it.
We are in a risky business.
The conquest of Space is worth the risk of life."
Gus Grisson, 1967

In the Shuttle section, there are memorials to the fallen heroes of that program. These include my friend, Captain Mike Smith, USN and pilot of STS 51-L, the ill-fated Challenger Mission. Mike and the rest of the crew perished on January 28, 1986. Most people remember this Challenger flight as the "First Teacher in Space" flight as teacher Christa McAuliffe was aboard. They tend to forget that another woman, Judy Resnick, was also aboard. Resnick had already been into space several years earlier serving as mission specialist.

















All in all, this huge exhibit is well worth a half day of the visitors' time and we recommend it to everyone, The entrance fee is included as part of the entrance fee at the Kennedy Space Center.

On the way back to the boat, we checked out the spot where we were going to view the shuttle launch. At 1400, some people were already staking a claim to a space for the 0439 launch the next morning. Along the road, in every park or space, people were setting up RVs and claiming their space. We did notice some people in RVs setting up the day before. Seeing all of this "claiming" going on, we decided to get to our spot early.

















We had dinner with our sister-in-law Tina from Zephrhills. She and her friend, Brian, came over to eat with us and to watch the liftoff. They could only get accommodations in Cocoa, about 20 miles away. We all agreed that the road would be too crowded for them to come back to watch with us, so they are going to watch in Cocoa.

We packed up the rental car and arrived at "our spot" at 2039, 8 hours before the scheduled launch. The place we had chosen was a residential street bordering the water and looking straight over the waterway to the launch pad, about 8 miles away. The pad was well lit and we had a perfect view. At this time, there were about 20 other cars on the street. The sky was clear, the air was nippy with temps at 50 degrees. We set up the tripod, the chairs, reclined the seats back in the car and slept for a while.

By 0100, Sunday morning, the street was full on the water side, no place to park. The clouds began to roll in and by 0200, all of the beautiful stars were gone, replaced by billowing clouds.

By 0300, both sides of the street were filled with parked cars. The street was a parking lot. People began to mill around, quiet, reserved, and chatting among themselves. There was one man there in shorts, a short sleeved shirt, driving a convertible with the top down. Another visitor, a photographer, from Los Angeles, had come to photograph the launch. He had come the last time when it had been delayed and he had to go back home. He also told us that last time this same spot had 2 cars. We suspect that the reason for the large crowd is a combination of:
1. Launch on a weekend,
2. Last nighttime launch,
3. Only 5 more launches to go,
4. Some people were on the way to the Super Bowl and stopped over.

By 0407, NASA issued a statement that they were trying to get a waiver from Houston to "go" in spite of the low clouds.

At 0422, NASA announced a "NO GO" and rescheduled the lift off for Monday morning at 0414.

We packed up our things and made our way back to the boat. Due to the traffic, it took us an hour to get "home," normally a 5 minute drive. By 0600, we were sleeping soundly on the boat, resting up to do it all again tonight! We both slept in until after 1030 this morning.

02-05-10 Kennedy Space Center day 2

Once again we saw a boat's name that we thought was unique and worth a picture.





















We spent a second day at the Kennedy Space Center. Our first stop was at the Astronaut's Memorial, which has special significance to us because Rick was a high school classmate of Michael Smith, the Pilot of the ill-fated Challenger. After pausing for a moment of silent prayer, we reverently admired the memorial. It is a very large slate with the names of astronauts that have been killed in various space disasters chiseled out, lighted from behind.






























Opposite the wall are several pictures and plaques telling of the lost missions and astronauts:































We then went into an area where we watched a live discussion about the upcoming launch that we are here to see. As of right now all systems are go, and there is an 80% chance that the launch will not be held up because of high winds that are expected early Sunday morning. That is up from 70% yesterday, so things are looking good! We learned that there is only a five minute window for the launch, so if it doesn't happen by 4:45AM we can give up and go to bed. Also, if for some reason it does not happen on Sunday night, Monday is definitely out because bad weather is predicted at every abort site. Tuesday may be a possibility, but really it sounds like if it doesn't go on Sunday as planned we'll be out of luck.













We also learned that there is a scheduled daytime launch on Tuesday morning of an Atlas Rocket. Since we're already here and have no definite schedule past the launch Sunday night, we will probably stay for that as well. The speaker said that would not be nearly as spectacular as a space shuttle launch, but would certainly be worth watching if we'd never seen one before.

The rest of the day was spent browsing the many exhibits, including a fascinating exhibit of the Hubble Telescope.

We also saw a second IMAX 3D movie, having seen one yesterday as well. We both love Imax movies, and these were included with the price of admission.

Another highlight of the day was sitting in the space shuttle simulator. You are shaken and turned and blasted with noise that is supposed to be very much like the shuttle take-off. It was so much fun we did it a second time. This might be a good time to mention how few people have been here over the past couple of days, which I guess is a sign of the poor economy. We've never had to wait for anything, even though they are set up for long lines. Some of the snack bars are closed due to lack of crowds. The movie theaters have been only about half full, and being able to go right back onto the simulator a second time without having to wait are all indications of tough times.

There are several ponds in the complex, and they have many alligators, not only in the ponds but also all along the highway leading here in the ditches along the side.

We ended the day in the Center for Space Education, which has classrooms and labs for visiting students. This building also houses the offices of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, and the walls were lined with more memorials to the astronauts killed in disasters. One of the most beautiful things was this quilt made in memory of the Challenger. There were also books holding poems and letters of condolence from school children...very moving.

Today was a very blustery day with strong storms predicted for late this afternoon. Sure enough, as we left the Space Center and headed for our car the rain started and by the time we made it out to the highway it was pouring. I don't think I've ever seen the sky so black! As we slowed down and made our way back to the marina, we noticed many RVs parked alongside the road, already staking out their position for the Sunday morning launch. Needless to say, the excitement level is high!

02-04-10 Titusville, FL - Kennedy Space Center

[Rick] The first thing this morning we arranged for Enterprise Rent-a-Car to pick us up and we rented a Ford Focus for a week. We decided to go ahead over to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. This is where the Space Shuttle is to be launched on Sunday Morning. We had already heard that this is a two day tour. Upon arriving, we decided to take the bus tour of three attractions. The hop on/off tour takes 3-4 hours.

















The first stop on the tour was the Gantry Stop. This is a three story metal structure that overlooks the launch pad. The shuttle, STS 130, is already on the pad, having been moved there last month. From the gantry, one can see the tower, but the shuttle is on the back side and is barely visible. There are several signs that explain what you can see and what all of the features are.





































On the way to the second stop of the tour, we passed very close to the shuttle mover. This is a huge platform that moves the module from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the pad. The top speed is 1 mile per hour and it usually takes about 8 hours to move the shuttle to the pad. There are 8 treads of 57 units on each tread.









We once again pass the Vehicle Assembly Building. This building, 535 feet tall and one story, is the second largest one story building in the world, by volume. It is so large that without the proper ventelation, the building will create its own weather pattern, and in fact rain inside. Another example of the size of the building is that the new Yankee Stadium would fit on the roof with 10 acres left over.






The Vehicle Assembly Building








The second stop on the tour is the Saturn/Apollo building. This, via displays and movies, tells the historic story of the Apollo program, the moon landing missions. There is a moon rock that you can touch and the actual Apollo 14 command capsule. The length of the building is comprised of an actual Saturn rocket. This rocket is 565 feet long and comprised of 4 stages. The solid rocket fuel for one launch creates enough energy to light New York City for 2 hours.






Apollo Capsule















Moon Rock













Scene from the Moon










The original control room for Apollo 8-17.











The third stop consists of the International Space Station Building. Here we saw some of the modules that NASA is transporting to the International Space Station. Since there are only 5 shuttle launches to go, this and several operations are shutting down.

From here, we returned to the visitor center. We watched a 45 minute IMAX film about the International Space Station and the cooperation among the 16 nations that are participating in the project. These include Canada, India, Russia, France, and China and the USA.

The launch is scheduled for 4:39AM Sunday morning. Anyone on the east coast might want to hop out of bed and try to see it, especially if you are on the ocean. It will launch in a northeasterly direction, and on a clear night should be visible as far north as New Jersey.

02-03-10 Titusville, FL

[Rick] We left Melbourne FL today and headed for Titusville, FL. It had rained all day on Monday, and yesterday was chilly and overcast. Today it was windy with highs in the 60s and a little overcast. The wind caused our ride to Titusville to be a choppy one, but we only had a little over 30 miles to go and our boat is made for chop so it wasn't a bad ride.

We really liked the town of Melbourne. The marina is very adequate with all the required services. The town is very close to the marina, only about 3 blocks away. The main street is quaint, with several antique shops and several specialty shops. There are about 15 eating places. We would highly recommend it to other loopers.

The reason we are in Titusville is to watch a space shuttle launch. We have planned on this stop since the very beginning of the journey. We have never seen a launch in person and we have always been interested in the shuttle program. A little known fact is that Mike Smith, the pilot of the ill-fated Challenger in 1986, was in my Beaufort High School Class of 1963. We checked ahead and several people told us that we can see the launch just across the waterway. The actual launch is this Sunday Morning, February 7 at 0439. As a nighttime launch it should be spectacular. Here is a picture of the NASA Assembly Building that we took while on the waterway. It was a little foggy and the building is about 2 miles away.

The Titusville Marina does not have cable or free wifi, so the week here will be a little less entertaining. On the other hand, we plan to rent a car tomorrow and go to the Space Museum and go to Orlando to visit with Ben Newlin and Disney's Wild Kingdom. The car will come in handy.

02-01-10 Melbourne Fl

[Rick] It rained ALL day. We did not leave the boat. We are hoping to at least get off the boat tomorrow. Wish us well.