Friday night I stood at the beach by the Cocoa Beach Pier along with a few thousand of my closet friends and watched the night launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. There's nothing quite so spectacular as a night launch of a shuttle. The night suddenly become sunrise as the whole skyline brightens up. Ater a few seconds the stunningly bright shuttle peeks its way over the building tops and you stand, absolutely amazed and awestruck, as you ponder what you're looking at. A rocket (actually a few) attatched to a large vehicle, carrying people blasting up and into the atmosphere. At night you can see when the SRB's fall off as two small points of light separate themselves from the brighter spot of the shuttle. You then watch, for what seems like a really long time, as the shuttle curves around the earth on it's way out to space. After a time, the ever dwindling spot of light that is the shuttle goes out, and there is a sigh of relief that everything went according to plan. Launch successful.
It's AMAZING!!! It's like Disney except Science and not Fantasy. I'm not the most eloquent writer so the words aren't coming, but it's amazing to look around and see how many people will drive long distances to see a shuttle launch. It's one of those, only happens here experiences that follow us wherever we go. Every place we've lived has the "only happens here" experiences and I love them.
I don't know what Washington will decide about the space program, but before they make any solid decisions, they all need to come and watch a night launch and experience the magic of Kennedy Space Center.
Monday, November 17, 2008
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2 comments:
dEnjoyed the read. Would love to have been there. Glad you all were. Love, Mom
Glad you enjoyed the last night launch so much. Sounds like a ton of fun!
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