All Systems Go!!!!
Despite being raised in Huntsville, AL the home of the Marshall Space Flight Center before today I had never watched a Shuttle launch live. I remember the Challenger explosion, but I did not find out about it for almost an hour after the fact. I was in 5th grade at the time and nearly class was left unattended while the teachers crowded around a small TV in the teacher’s lounge watching the First Teacher sent to space. It was not till the bell rang for us to change classes that we knew something was wrong because several teachers were crying like crazy, but it was close to an hour later that we found out what was wrong and did not see the footage till National news that night. Back then I didn’t even have cable and regular networks didn’t have on the hour news updates. I was watching TV the morning the Columbia fell from the sky and as devastating as that was it was not as intense as the video of the Challenger. I did get a chance to see the Test Shuttle when it came to Huntsville, Rocket City USA back in the late 70s as the test stand is just over 10 miles away from where I live and when it was flown in my dad still worked at the Redstone Arsenal Army Airfield where it landed. I still have a batch of photos one of the guys shot there and print several sets including some from a helicopter that was flying security as it landed.
As much of a thrill as it was sitting here just minutes ago watching the launch I can only imagine the thrill it was standing down at Kennedy this morning let alone back in the 80s when Columbia launched for the first time or back just over 40 years ago when we first sent man into space. Having been to the test stand while they did a test fire I have seen the fire and smoke, heard the roar and felt the ground shake, but someday I plan on going back to FL and watching them launch who knows maybe we will still make it back to the moon someday in my lifetime. It has taken us well over the 10 years the director told Walter Cronkite back in the early days of the Shuttle, but we have got people living in Space, had a rover land on Mars and despite a few tragedies have a crew aboard the Discovery 21 years after it first flew.
For more info on the STS 114 as well as NASA and the Space Shuttle click on the link below:
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/i
As much of a thrill as it was sitting here just minutes ago watching the launch I can only imagine the thrill it was standing down at Kennedy this morning let alone back in the 80s when Columbia launched for the first time or back just over 40 years ago when we first sent man into space. Having been to the test stand while they did a test fire I have seen the fire and smoke, heard the roar and felt the ground shake, but someday I plan on going back to FL and watching them launch who knows maybe we will still make it back to the moon someday in my lifetime. It has taken us well over the 10 years the director told Walter Cronkite back in the early days of the Shuttle, but we have got people living in Space, had a rover land on Mars and despite a few tragedies have a crew aboard the Discovery 21 years after it first flew.
For more info on the STS 114 as well as NASA and the Space Shuttle click on the link below:
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/i
posted by Don Bates at
12:32 PM
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