analyze – i has it

Tell the world people.  After 18 months of failed attempts, we were able to see a space shuttle launch!

This video shows some of the timeline and the actual launch video:

I wanted to write about this last launch attempt, specifically because the launch experience is so much more than just watching the shuttle go.  I wanted to get my thoughts on “paper” since it was such a unique experience.

Laura and I were required to show up at the bus pickup location at 11:00 PM Sunday night.

Let me first back up and tell you, if you don’t already know, that Saturday was not a small day.  My brother, Alex, got married and Laura and I were both in the wedding.  Now here we were only the next day getting on a plane at noon, flying to Florida, driving for several hours, and finally getting to our hotel at 7 PM.

Needless to say, we were ready for a full nights sleep by then, but we only had time for a short cat nap and we were up again by 9 PM getting packed and ready for the night.

We left the hotel and took the short ten minute drive up to Cape Canaveral where the buses picked us up.  We had tickets with a 3rd party tour company.  The plan was for them to pick us up in Cape Canaveral, drive us to the visitor center where we would all go through security (even the buses), then they would pick us back up from inside the visitor center and drive us to the viewing location.

We got to Cape Canaveral and got in line for the first time that night.  There would be many, many more lines.  One of the fun parts about attending something like this is that you know that every other person there is just as crazy as you and loves space and the space shuttle program just as much as you do.  Why else would anyone stay up all night standing in lines for something that may end up being scrubbed at the last minute.

Our tour company opened the gates to the buses at 11 PM and we filed in showing our tickets from the previous launch.  We were on bus #33 which everyone decided was lucky because that meant we only had to remember one number.  The tour company must have been family run because throughout the evening we met the mother, father, wife and aunt of our tour guide.  He was a lot of fun, if not a bit full of himself.

After waiting for everyone to finish getting on the buses, we drove the 30 minute drive to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.  Once we arrived we were given our green tickets to allow us to get out onto the causeway.  Then we got into a massive line to go through security.  This was around midnight.

Once we got in to the Visitor Complex we knew we should go to the Space Shop first because last time it was swamped with people by the time we thought of buying anything and the lines to purchase anything wrapped around the whole store.  So we went and bought our STS 134 coins and a program and then settled into another line to re-board the buses.  It was beautiful outside in the warm Florida evening air.

We got in line around 1 AM and the line didn’t move until around 3 AM.  We dozed in and out of sleep as we waited.  At after 3 AM we boarded the buses again, and then slept on them for another 3 hours.  Finally around 6 AM the bus was actually rolling to the causeway.  We had been teased all night by seeing the spot lights on the space shuttle shooting up into the night sky, but we hadn’t seen it yet.  As we crossed onto the causeway, I got my first shot of the space shuttle Endeavour sitting on her launch pad.

The causeway is really just a road across the river with about 70 feet of grass on each side.  Somewhere around 60 buses bring people out to the causeway and park in a huge 3 x 20 line.  Concession, port-a-potties and massive speakers make it feel almost like the 4th of July.  Here’s a shot at about 6:30 AM of the causeway area.

Everyone made a mad rush for the north side of the causeway to stake out our spots.  We grabbed a slightly larger area than we needed, so a nice guy from Jersey asked to setup his tri-pod next to mine.  He even said he would send any pictures he took to my email after the launch.  Once the tri-pod was set up, I was able to take a stable shot from just over 6 miles away of the space shuttle Endeavour.

Until the sun came up, it was a bit cool so we curled up with our large beach towl.

There was a dense cloud deck to the east, and as the sun peaked over the clouds, it started to warm the causeway.

Everything started to ramp up after the sun came up.  The thick clouds cleared and the winds were not a problem.  Everything was go for launch.  The shuttle launch director gave the go to launch Endeavour and we all held our breath on the causeway for the final 10 minutes before launch.

Up until 31 seconds before launch, any number of things can cause the team to scrub the launch, but once we hit 31 seconds the computers on board the space shuttle take over, and it’s very rare to scrub at that point.  Everyone on the causeway gets excited and you can feel the anticipation.

I chose to video the launch since I love being able to hear the crowd react to the launch.  I knew that I would have hundreds of pictures all over the web to choose from if I wanted pictures.  You can watch the video I took of the launch here.  I’ll walk you through what it was like on the causeway for each major frame of the video.

Just before launch the orbiter access arm (used by the crew to get in Endeavour) is retracted.  Next the vent arm is retracted from the top of the External Tank.

At 31 seconds to launch everyone gets real intense.  You hear this at the beginning of the video above.  We’re all real sure we’re going to launch now!

Everyone starts counting with the announcer at 10 seconds and we’re just praying nothing last minute goes wrong.

The main engines light at just over 6 seconds until launch.  A fire orange glow can be seen at the base of the shuttle which is quickly blocked by the building cloud.  Everyone goes wild as the cloud builds because that means we’re moments from liftoff.

The Solid Rocket Boosters light at 1 second to liftoff.  The entire space shuttle has been blocked by the exhaust cloud at this point.  We’re just waiting for the announcer to say the words “Lift Off”.

As “Lift Off” comes across the speakers a cheer can be heard across the entire Causeway – over to the visitor center – and across the entire space coast.  The orange External Tank climbs slowly out from behind the white cloud and the Space Shuttle quickly picks up speed.

The crowd is literally going wild as Endeavour climbs off the pad and rolls counter clockwise to head out over the Atlantic Ocean.  As the entire vehicle climbs out from behind the exhaust cloud at the pad, the intense orange ripply flame coming from the Solid Rocket Boosters is so intense that you almost can’t look at it.  No video I have ever watched of a launch has captured that intensely bright orange.  I was also impressed to see the difference in color of the two exhaust clouds.  The cloud coming off the main engines (which is mostly just steam) was much whiter than the cloud coming out of the Solid Rocket Boosters.

As the shuttle approached the thin cloud deck, a halo of orange reflected off the clouds and closed in on the shuttle.  The shuttle seemed to cut a hole through the clouds and then was gone.

The clouds were broken higher up in the sky so everyone immediately moved their gaze to the break in the clouds, holding our breath as we waited to see it again.  As it burst through the crack in the clouds the crowd cheered with renewed energy.  The orange of the flame against the blue sky with the white clouds framing it was an incredible image.

Over 30 seconds after the launch, the sound of the main engines lighting hits us.  Six seconds later, the sound of the solid rocket boosters hits the crowd and the air literary shakes around you.  Every hair on my legs was vibrating.  Explosion after explosion passes over you like the grand finally of every Forth of July exploding around you at once.

Two minutes in to flight, the Solid Rocket Boosters separate.  We couldn’t see it because of the clouds, but a large cheer went up from the crowd since the orbiter was now well on it’s way to orbit.  We all started cleaning up and I had our Jersey friend snap this picture of us with the exhaust cloud in the background.

Everyone was grinning as we boarded the buses on the way back to the drop off location.  Traffic wasn’t terrible so we got back to our hotel a little after 10 AM.  We were both exhausted, but it had been an incredible day.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and prayers and emotional distress you went through with us.  Thanks to God for giving us this incredible experience!