It often amazes me that I can live somewhere and never go to see some of the most awesome stuff. For example I grew up in Hawaii and never went to the Arizona Memorial until I returned with my two very young children.
Another example is that I lived in Florida for 12 years and never once went to the Kennedy Space Center. My children went on field trips, but not me. Nor had I ever seen a launch up close (that is a relative term). I have see the shuttle go up from the beach in Jacksonville, a couple hundred miles to the north of the space center.
Anyway, when NASA announced the end of the shuttle program, my sweetheart did a very wonderful thing. He called our neighbor in Florida who is a retired directer of the Space Center and we were invited by the current director of the Space Center to the launch. What an experience!
After leaving the mountains after work and driving all night, we slept about 4 hours and then headed over to Kennedy Space Center to see the sights. We had to get our outdoor things in between thunder storms. Being the day before the last launch the place was packed.
Behind me is a model of the Saturn 5 rocket.
Here are a whole bunch of other rockets. Richard can name them all.
On launch day we boarded a bus and were taken out to the viewing area where the families and friends of the shuttle crew watch the takeoff. This is also where they have a real, full size Saturn rocket, wow.
Here is a shot of the rocket boosters that got this huge ship off the ground.
I love Snoopy and here he is as an astronaut.
Its hard to read, but the Commander of the Apollo 10 mission was Thomas Stafford, now a retired General. We were honored to be riding on the same bus and him and we were able to get out picture taken with him later that day.
A capsule from the Apollo 12 mission, maybe its 14 I can't remember.
I got to meet Col. Mike Goode. He had flown 2 previous missions on the Atlantis shuttle and has logged 29 hours of space walks. Some of that time was spent repairing the Hubble telescope.
In the hazy distance, Atlantis on the launch pad awaiting her last flight.
Richard trying to stay cool. We heard that it was 92 degrees not including the humidity at launch time.
The smoke trail from Atantis' rockets. From 3.9 miles away you can feel the reverberation in your chest as the shuttle goes up.
On the bus back to the beach with two former directors of the Kennedy Space Center. On the left, our neighbor and friend Jay and on the right Bill.
In all it was worth suffering through the heat and humidity to be able to take part in such a momentous event. NASA, thank you for some incredible memories!
