So, when we scheduled our trip to Florida months ago, the Shuttle Endeavor was supposed to launch on Thursday, February 4th. It then got bumped to Sunday, February 7th. That was fine because we were still going to be in Florida. I was so excited to see it. This was the last night launch and there are only a few more launches that are currently scheduled. Due to funding, the shuttle program might be put on hold or completely eliminated. We don’t know yet.
Anyways. . . We got up at 2:45 am Sunday morning. We bundled up and headed out to the Florida coast in Titusville. My aunt lives in Titusville, so it really wasn’t too big of a deal. We parked and walked to a sight we had scoped out. Actually a park ranger at the Wildlife Reserve told me where to go. And man, it was a sweet spot. It was a straight on view of the shuttle.
That bright light in the center – that is the shuttle. They have lots of lights on it and they have lights going into the sky because that is the direction it is going to go.
We waited and waited. The shuttle was supposed to take off at 4:39 am. At 4:30 am we got news that they scrubbed the launch due to cloud cover. The clouds were at 3800 feet and they needed to be at 4000 feet at the lowest. I was so sad. They had said that the launch had a 70% chance of taking off that morning. So we packed up and went back to sleep. Then we drove into Orlando to go to our condo. We had a busy few days ahead of us.
The next morning, the probability of the launch taking off was 40%. We decided not to go back because that was such a low probability. And we were exhausted from the lack of sleep. And at 4:14 am, on Monday, February 8, 2010, the Space Shuttle Endeavor launched. I sat in the condo and watched it on television and almost cried. My aunt and uncle watched it from the parking lot. They said you could see it as a bright light. (Orlando is about 60 miles away from the launch site.)
These are pictures, courtesy of the NASA website. It would have been beautiful to see in person.
Even now, I want to cry that I missed it.
To see more photo’s and to read up about the mission go here.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh
I’m sad you didn’t get to see the launch. I’ll pretend you did!
That is really sad to be so, so close and not get to see it.
On the other hand, that’s awesome that you even got to see the shuttle. Even that is awesome! (if only it weren’t tainted by the, “if only”)