NASA's last shuttle launch after a 30-year run is scheduled for later this year but I was able to catch one of the last few shuttles launches in 2009, crossing off a major item on my bucket list! The day at Orlando, Florida's Kennedy Space Center was a fun-filled day of wonderment for this space geek and I'm truly sorry that I will not have any future chances of catching another shuttle launch. It really is an experience that's "out of this world!" For more details on the actual launch, please refer to my 3-2-1...Liftoff! post.
As you can see, I'm very excited to be "holding hands" with America's pioneering astronauts, the Mercury 7! All those years working for the US Space Camp Foundation and learning about space history culminated in this moment when I first walked into Kennedy Space Center. It really was a dream come true.
As launch time starts getting down towards T-minus one hour, the crowds gather at the designated shuttle launch viewing areas. Luckily, a friend of mine and fellow US Space Camp Foundation alumni managed to pull some strings for me at the last minute and I was on a bus, heading off towards the Eastern Causeway, one of the closest places you can watch a shuttle launch without causing serious damage to yourself!
Space shuttle Atlantis and the crew of STS-129 are leaving Earth's atmosphere with only a rapidly disappearing trace in the sky to remind viewers that mere seconds ago, they were right there in front of our very eyes. I'm still on Earth but feeling so ecstatic, so excited, so emotional (yes, I actually cried) that I felt as though I was the one flying above the ground.
Have YOU ever been to the Kennedy Space Center? Watched a live Shuttle launch?
© Connie Hum 2011
I have been to Kennedy and I have watched a live launch - although not at the same time. :-) We actually watched one of the recent launches from a nearby beach. It was AWESOME.
ReplyDelete@Miss Britt Sounds like a GREAT day at the beach! Space shuttles are just a complete source of wonder for me. =)
ReplyDeleteI was in Florida at the time of a scheduled launch but it got moved back due to adverse weather. I was gutted!
ReplyDeleteI hope I can get to see one of these in the future... bucket list.