My NASA Adventure
I had quite an adventure last Thursday. In short I got the opportunity to be present at the NASA Landing Facility at Cape Canaveral for the final Space Shuttle landing and the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program.
Way back in May, I stumbled upon a drawing that NASA Tweetup was holding to be present for the last ever launch of a space shuttle. This seemed like a pretty cool thing to me, so I entered. I got the expected response at drawing time and was told I was wait-listed for the event. Nothing extraordinary there.
The extraordinary part starts on Sunday July 17th while I'm at JoAnns shopping for some linen. There was some confusion about the coupon I was using so I was looking up the details on my phone and couldn't resist checking my email while I was at it. There was an email from someone I didn't know... I am really glad I didn't dismiss it as spam out of hand...
"Great news! We get to bring 50 people to the landing of space shuttle Atlantis. Since we do not have time for a new registration, we are selecting randomly from those who were put on the waiting list for the STS-135 NASA Tweetup. And YOU have been selected from the waiting list to attend the expected landing of space shuttle Atlantis"
My heart rate shifted into high gear and I started sweating... I couldn't believe it... I was sure it was a hoax or something... I put the phone away and finished my shopping and headed home. I checked it on my computer at home... not a hoax. This was real... I was being given a chance to watch history happen. I had some serious thinking to do.
Over the next 20 hours or so I checked flight costs, and hotel costs and rental car costs and checked with my boss at work... we typically need to give 2 weeks notice for vacation time requests, but given the extraordinary nature of this one, he made an exception and I was approved to take the time off. I could get the flight with my JetBlue points plus very little out-of-pocket cash, There were plenty of affordable hotel rooms, and rental cars available... I came to the earth-shattering conclusion that I could actually do this. So, I did. I booked the flight, I got a great deal on a convertible rental car from Priceline, and I splurged a little on the hotel room. I was going...
I don't remember a lot about Tuesday and Thursday... I tried very hard to be productive at work, and I have To Do lists with items crossed off of them to prove that I did get things done, but my brain was a-buzz with the looming adventure.
Since it was a Tweetup that got me this opportunity I felt I should use Twitter to broadcast my adventure. I hooked my Facebook account up to Twitter so that the people there wouldn't feel left out and as I boarded the bus for Logan on Wednesday afternoon, I started tweeting...
"And so begins my adventure to witness the end of an era. On the bus to Logan Airport. #sts135Landing"
By the time I got to the airport, my flight was delayed 20 minutes. I made it through security in plenty of time to grab some food and wait at the gate. We were about an hour late taking off. This did not bode well for my chances of getting any sleep. The flight was a little turbulent in the middle, but due to some sort of glitch in the video system, the only way for them to have the in-flight-entertainment working was to make all the movies free... I watched Limitless. We touched down at 10:00 pm, about a half an hour later than scheduled. As we sat waiting for the ground crew to pull us into the gate in Orlando, I had a sickening thought....what if the rental car counter is closed... then I thought... This is Orlando... it won't be closed. It wasn't. Rental check-in was pretty painless and I was soon making friends with my shiny blue Mustang convertible. I dropped the top before I left the garage.
The drive east from Orlando to Cape Canaveral is a straight shot on Route 528. The air was warm and balmy, and I found a great 80's station on the radio by the time I was hitting the on-ramp. The adventure was starting to get fun already!
I found the hotel easily enough, got checked in with no issues, grabbed a quick shower to rinse the travel grime off, set two different alarms for 3:00 AM and lay down around midnight to try and get a little sleep. I'm pretty sure I dozed off at least a little.
At 3:00 AM the alarm woke me up and I got dressed, double-checked my list (camera...check, snacks...check, water...check, sweater...check, phone...check) got in the Mustang and headed for the NASA Press Accreditation Building to check in for the Tweetup. Google Maps said it was a 17 minute drive, and the Tweetup instructions said to allow an extra 15-20 minutes for landing-day traffic, so I left 45 minutes before I had to be there. There was no traffic, and I didn't get lost and I got there with plenty of time to spare. They hadn't even opened the registration yet. They are just opening the doors when I get there. While I am waiting I introduce myself to the other Tweeps. There are people there from California, Iowa, Arkansas, and me, from Maine. At check-in we are issued a personalized NASATweetup badge, and a goodie bag full of really cool swag: A Mission patch for this Space Shuttle mission, a pin commemorating the whole Space Shuttle program, a calendar featuring the International Space Station (which will be the centerpiece of NASA Human Spaceflight missions for the next couple of years), a squishy astronaut, a reporter's notebook containing factual details of hundreds of space missions, and it all came in a cute little re-usable sack.
Once I got my stuff, I dashed to the car to re-arrange stuff (I didn't need the tote I'd brought since I could use the swag-sack to carry my snacks, water and sweater), and to tweet a little tweet with a picture of my badge:
Badged! #STS135Landing http://t.co/IOSQmaH
Then I joined my fellow adventurers on the bus. We were welcomed aboard by one of the NASA Tweetup organizers who reminded us that this ending for the Space Shuttle program was also the beginning of NASA refocusing its energies on exploration beyond low Earth orbit. That the resources that had been devoted to keeping the aging Space Shuttle fleet maintained and operational would now be directed towards returning to the Moon or heading to Mars. This was an overarching theme in a lot of places throughout my visit. That NASA's human space flight mission is not ending with the Space Shuttle program.
Then we waited. We got on the bus at about 4:15 AM, and the landing was scheduled for 5:58 AM. We had to wait for our Kennedy Space Center guide (handler) to get the official OK for us to move out to the landing facility. We waited a long time. So long, in fact, that by the time we pulled out, we ended up behind the very slow moving convoy of service trucks headed out to meet the shuttle. We were kept entertained and informed by our handy-dandy guide who had worked at NASA for 22 years as a shuttle inspector. He told us what was happening on the shuttle, described the de-orbit process, and told us about the explosive bolts that guarantee that the shuttle's landing gear will come down. We got to the landing facility 15 minutes before the landing was scheduled. It took me a while to get my bearings and figure out where the landing strip was from where I was standing. It was still quite dark. As the Shuttle approached, I could see it as a fast-moving star-looking-thing in the sky. There was a video screen that showed the Shuttle's position relative to a map. At about 3 minutes before landing, just as we'd been told to expect, the twin sonic booms that accompany the shuttle's transition from super- to sub-sonic flight echoed through the muggy air. The collective "oooOOooo" from the crowd was genuine. It was an awe inspiring sound.The loudspeakers were broadcasting the control tower interactions with the shuttle and announcing it's movements as it transitioned from descent angle (18 degrees down-angle on the nose) to the pre-landing 'flare" where they lift the nose of the shuttle and present it's belly to the onrushing atmosphere to slow it waaaaay down prior to touchdown. I heard, but did not see the moment the wheels touched down. We are all looking North, toward the treeline for any sign of her in the dark sky. The first think I could see was the drag chute over the trees, then we could hear her, and then she came rushing past on her way to full stop and the end of the final flight of the space shuttle Atlantis, and indeed of the entire space shuttle program. I could only see the shuttle for a few seconds, but it was enough. I got one good photo as it rolled by in the darkness, but my minds eye has the full recording and it is a treasure I will hold onto as long as I can. A few moments after I lost sight of her, the loudspeaker announced "Wheel stop" and the Shuttle Atlantis had landed.
There was a collective cheer from the crowd, and then everyone was milling around and starting to head back to their buses. I stood there, trying to soak it all in. I was sobbing and smiling all at the same time. I stepped up to the edge of the fence to take a few more photos of the scene and as I did these words came over the loudspeaker: "Atlantis is home, its journey complete. A moment in history to be savored."
As best as I can tell, this is where I was for the landing:
View Larger Map
As I finally got myself together enough to head back towards the bus, I spotted the souvenir stand. Silently hoping that they would take plastic (I had a foolishly small amount of cash on me) I got in line. The hot ticket item seemed to be the envelopes you could mail from the temporary postal outlet in order to get a special cancellation stamp... Not sure how much time I had before my bus left, I kept it simple and got a polo shirt for me and a baseball cap for kr4sh . When I got back to the bus, people were still milling around outside, so I got someone to take my picture in front of the control tower so I had proof that I was there. The bus ride back to the parking lot and the subsequent drive back to the hotel (with the top down on the Mustang!) were quiet and contemplative, for me at least. Then I napped.
When I woke up from my nap I got some breakfast and then headed over to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex to do some sightseeing and soak in the space geekiness. :) I should have taken the bus tour earlier than I did because they left Atlantis sitting outside the Orbiter Processing Facility for a while longer than usual and I would've gotten some great close shots of it, but I didn't realize this was going on until it was too late. It's OK though because I still got some great photos of the VAB, and the launch pad where Atlantis had lifted off two weeks prior. Plus, I got to get my picture taken with an Astronaut and see a lot of cool stuff while I was there. They have a Science fiction meets science fact theme going on this summer with a big exhibit of Star Trek memorabilia as it's showpiece. (They were also showing Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon in 3D in the IMAX Theater, but we won't talk about that here...) There was a ride that simulated some sort of Star Trek voyage, and costumed actors; a Vulcan lady and a "Temporal Enforcement Officer" from the future there to make sure we didn't damage the timeline by trying to duplicate the technology on display... It was cute. The full scale Space Shuttle model was impressive. It was cool to stand inside it and imagine life in orbit. I also got to see the models and mock-ups for NASA's next generation human space flight plans. The Orion rocket and crew capsule.
After I got fully and completely overloaded on space-geek goodness, I drove back to the hotel and rested a bit and got cleaned up for dinner. I dropped the top on the Mustang and cruised down to Cocoa Beach. I had two criterion for my dinner destination. 1 - it had to be on the water, and 2 - it had to be local and not a chain. I had almost given up when I spotted a sign that said "Come enjoy the sunset on our deck" Since it was just about sunset, I knew that sign was meant for me, and I pulled in to Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty. The deck was *over* the water, the sunset was in full swing, and the food was great. I had the coconut shrimp appetizer, because I have a serious weakness for coconut shrimp, and then the cashew encrusted tilapia with coconut rum sauce. There was a freshening breeze, which the waitress said happens every evening around sunset, and it was an excellent way to cap off a very exciting day, quietly watching the sun sink into the Banana River while off in the distance a thunderhead built itself up.
I slept really well that night.
In the morning, I slept in, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, checked out and headed to the Astronaut Hall Of Fame, admission for which was included in my previous day's entry into Kennedy Space Center. I was stopped at an intersection by a fellow in an official looking vehicle with flashing lights on it and told a convoy was coming through and that I'd have to stay where I was until it had passed. This was fine with me. Interesting things travel in convoys. It turned out to be some sort of multi-wheeled heavy equipment transporter. I'd have gotten better pictures of it if several cars hadn't thought I was just sitting still for the fun of it and tried to go around me through the intersection, only to be stopped by Official Looking Guy. The Astronaut Hall Of Fame was nice. Not as big or as cool as the Space Center, but full of interesting artifacts from the history of American manned spaceflight. One of the most touching items on display was the telegram from President and Mrs. Ford to the family of Gus Grissom who, along with crewmates Edward White and Roger Chaffee, was killed in a cabin fire during a launch pad test for the Apollo 1 mission.
My last mission before leaving for the airport was to get a signed print that cartoonist Brian Basset (Red and Rover, Adam@Home) had done especially for the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program. I needed to leave at 1:30 to get to the airport on time for my flight and he was scheduled to be signing prints beginning at 1:00... It was close, but I made it.
The rest of the trip was in no way extraordinary... I got the car turned in on time and made it through security with no issues. Got to my gate in plenty of time to grab a salad from the concession stand before boarding began. The bus ride home from Logan was unremarkable and so was my drive home after that. Of course, after the exciting trip I had just taken, it probably would have really sucked if anything on the trip home was exciting by comparison.
Way back in May, I stumbled upon a drawing that NASA Tweetup was holding to be present for the last ever launch of a space shuttle. This seemed like a pretty cool thing to me, so I entered. I got the expected response at drawing time and was told I was wait-listed for the event. Nothing extraordinary there.
The extraordinary part starts on Sunday July 17th while I'm at JoAnns shopping for some linen. There was some confusion about the coupon I was using so I was looking up the details on my phone and couldn't resist checking my email while I was at it. There was an email from someone I didn't know... I am really glad I didn't dismiss it as spam out of hand...
"Great news! We get to bring 50 people to the landing of space shuttle Atlantis. Since we do not have time for a new registration, we are selecting randomly from those who were put on the waiting list for the STS-135 NASA Tweetup. And YOU have been selected from the waiting list to attend the expected landing of space shuttle Atlantis"
My heart rate shifted into high gear and I started sweating... I couldn't believe it... I was sure it was a hoax or something... I put the phone away and finished my shopping and headed home. I checked it on my computer at home... not a hoax. This was real... I was being given a chance to watch history happen. I had some serious thinking to do.
Over the next 20 hours or so I checked flight costs, and hotel costs and rental car costs and checked with my boss at work... we typically need to give 2 weeks notice for vacation time requests, but given the extraordinary nature of this one, he made an exception and I was approved to take the time off. I could get the flight with my JetBlue points plus very little out-of-pocket cash, There were plenty of affordable hotel rooms, and rental cars available... I came to the earth-shattering conclusion that I could actually do this. So, I did. I booked the flight, I got a great deal on a convertible rental car from Priceline, and I splurged a little on the hotel room. I was going...
I don't remember a lot about Tuesday and Thursday... I tried very hard to be productive at work, and I have To Do lists with items crossed off of them to prove that I did get things done, but my brain was a-buzz with the looming adventure.
Since it was a Tweetup that got me this opportunity I felt I should use Twitter to broadcast my adventure. I hooked my Facebook account up to Twitter so that the people there wouldn't feel left out and as I boarded the bus for Logan on Wednesday afternoon, I started tweeting...
"And so begins my adventure to witness the end of an era. On the bus to Logan Airport. #sts135Landing"
By the time I got to the airport, my flight was delayed 20 minutes. I made it through security in plenty of time to grab some food and wait at the gate. We were about an hour late taking off. This did not bode well for my chances of getting any sleep. The flight was a little turbulent in the middle, but due to some sort of glitch in the video system, the only way for them to have the in-flight-entertainment working was to make all the movies free... I watched Limitless. We touched down at 10:00 pm, about a half an hour later than scheduled. As we sat waiting for the ground crew to pull us into the gate in Orlando, I had a sickening thought....what if the rental car counter is closed... then I thought... This is Orlando... it won't be closed. It wasn't. Rental check-in was pretty painless and I was soon making friends with my shiny blue Mustang convertible. I dropped the top before I left the garage.
The drive east from Orlando to Cape Canaveral is a straight shot on Route 528. The air was warm and balmy, and I found a great 80's station on the radio by the time I was hitting the on-ramp. The adventure was starting to get fun already!
I found the hotel easily enough, got checked in with no issues, grabbed a quick shower to rinse the travel grime off, set two different alarms for 3:00 AM and lay down around midnight to try and get a little sleep. I'm pretty sure I dozed off at least a little.
At 3:00 AM the alarm woke me up and I got dressed, double-checked my list (camera...check, snacks...check, water...check, sweater...check, phone...check) got in the Mustang and headed for the NASA Press Accreditation Building to check in for the Tweetup. Google Maps said it was a 17 minute drive, and the Tweetup instructions said to allow an extra 15-20 minutes for landing-day traffic, so I left 45 minutes before I had to be there. There was no traffic, and I didn't get lost and I got there with plenty of time to spare. They hadn't even opened the registration yet. They are just opening the doors when I get there. While I am waiting I introduce myself to the other Tweeps. There are people there from California, Iowa, Arkansas, and me, from Maine. At check-in we are issued a personalized NASATweetup badge, and a goodie bag full of really cool swag: A Mission patch for this Space Shuttle mission, a pin commemorating the whole Space Shuttle program, a calendar featuring the International Space Station (which will be the centerpiece of NASA Human Spaceflight missions for the next couple of years), a squishy astronaut, a reporter's notebook containing factual details of hundreds of space missions, and it all came in a cute little re-usable sack.
Once I got my stuff, I dashed to the car to re-arrange stuff (I didn't need the tote I'd brought since I could use the swag-sack to carry my snacks, water and sweater), and to tweet a little tweet with a picture of my badge:
Badged! #STS135Landing http://t.co/IOSQmaH
Then I joined my fellow adventurers on the bus. We were welcomed aboard by one of the NASA Tweetup organizers who reminded us that this ending for the Space Shuttle program was also the beginning of NASA refocusing its energies on exploration beyond low Earth orbit. That the resources that had been devoted to keeping the aging Space Shuttle fleet maintained and operational would now be directed towards returning to the Moon or heading to Mars. This was an overarching theme in a lot of places throughout my visit. That NASA's human space flight mission is not ending with the Space Shuttle program.
Then we waited. We got on the bus at about 4:15 AM, and the landing was scheduled for 5:58 AM. We had to wait for our Kennedy Space Center guide (handler) to get the official OK for us to move out to the landing facility. We waited a long time. So long, in fact, that by the time we pulled out, we ended up behind the very slow moving convoy of service trucks headed out to meet the shuttle. We were kept entertained and informed by our handy-dandy guide who had worked at NASA for 22 years as a shuttle inspector. He told us what was happening on the shuttle, described the de-orbit process, and told us about the explosive bolts that guarantee that the shuttle's landing gear will come down. We got to the landing facility 15 minutes before the landing was scheduled. It took me a while to get my bearings and figure out where the landing strip was from where I was standing. It was still quite dark. As the Shuttle approached, I could see it as a fast-moving star-looking-thing in the sky. There was a video screen that showed the Shuttle's position relative to a map. At about 3 minutes before landing, just as we'd been told to expect, the twin sonic booms that accompany the shuttle's transition from super- to sub-sonic flight echoed through the muggy air. The collective "oooOOooo" from the crowd was genuine. It was an awe inspiring sound.The loudspeakers were broadcasting the control tower interactions with the shuttle and announcing it's movements as it transitioned from descent angle (18 degrees down-angle on the nose) to the pre-landing 'flare" where they lift the nose of the shuttle and present it's belly to the onrushing atmosphere to slow it waaaaay down prior to touchdown. I heard, but did not see the moment the wheels touched down. We are all looking North, toward the treeline for any sign of her in the dark sky. The first think I could see was the drag chute over the trees, then we could hear her, and then she came rushing past on her way to full stop and the end of the final flight of the space shuttle Atlantis, and indeed of the entire space shuttle program. I could only see the shuttle for a few seconds, but it was enough. I got one good photo as it rolled by in the darkness, but my minds eye has the full recording and it is a treasure I will hold onto as long as I can. A few moments after I lost sight of her, the loudspeaker announced "Wheel stop" and the Shuttle Atlantis had landed.
There was a collective cheer from the crowd, and then everyone was milling around and starting to head back to their buses. I stood there, trying to soak it all in. I was sobbing and smiling all at the same time. I stepped up to the edge of the fence to take a few more photos of the scene and as I did these words came over the loudspeaker: "Atlantis is home, its journey complete. A moment in history to be savored."
As best as I can tell, this is where I was for the landing:
View Larger Map
As I finally got myself together enough to head back towards the bus, I spotted the souvenir stand. Silently hoping that they would take plastic (I had a foolishly small amount of cash on me) I got in line. The hot ticket item seemed to be the envelopes you could mail from the temporary postal outlet in order to get a special cancellation stamp... Not sure how much time I had before my bus left, I kept it simple and got a polo shirt for me and a baseball cap for kr4sh . When I got back to the bus, people were still milling around outside, so I got someone to take my picture in front of the control tower so I had proof that I was there. The bus ride back to the parking lot and the subsequent drive back to the hotel (with the top down on the Mustang!) were quiet and contemplative, for me at least. Then I napped.
When I woke up from my nap I got some breakfast and then headed over to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex to do some sightseeing and soak in the space geekiness. :) I should have taken the bus tour earlier than I did because they left Atlantis sitting outside the Orbiter Processing Facility for a while longer than usual and I would've gotten some great close shots of it, but I didn't realize this was going on until it was too late. It's OK though because I still got some great photos of the VAB, and the launch pad where Atlantis had lifted off two weeks prior. Plus, I got to get my picture taken with an Astronaut and see a lot of cool stuff while I was there. They have a Science fiction meets science fact theme going on this summer with a big exhibit of Star Trek memorabilia as it's showpiece. (They were also showing Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon in 3D in the IMAX Theater, but we won't talk about that here...) There was a ride that simulated some sort of Star Trek voyage, and costumed actors; a Vulcan lady and a "Temporal Enforcement Officer" from the future there to make sure we didn't damage the timeline by trying to duplicate the technology on display... It was cute. The full scale Space Shuttle model was impressive. It was cool to stand inside it and imagine life in orbit. I also got to see the models and mock-ups for NASA's next generation human space flight plans. The Orion rocket and crew capsule.
After I got fully and completely overloaded on space-geek goodness, I drove back to the hotel and rested a bit and got cleaned up for dinner. I dropped the top on the Mustang and cruised down to Cocoa Beach. I had two criterion for my dinner destination. 1 - it had to be on the water, and 2 - it had to be local and not a chain. I had almost given up when I spotted a sign that said "Come enjoy the sunset on our deck" Since it was just about sunset, I knew that sign was meant for me, and I pulled in to Jack Baker's Lobster Shanty. The deck was *over* the water, the sunset was in full swing, and the food was great. I had the coconut shrimp appetizer, because I have a serious weakness for coconut shrimp, and then the cashew encrusted tilapia with coconut rum sauce. There was a freshening breeze, which the waitress said happens every evening around sunset, and it was an excellent way to cap off a very exciting day, quietly watching the sun sink into the Banana River while off in the distance a thunderhead built itself up.
I slept really well that night.
In the morning, I slept in, had a nice breakfast at the hotel, checked out and headed to the Astronaut Hall Of Fame, admission for which was included in my previous day's entry into Kennedy Space Center. I was stopped at an intersection by a fellow in an official looking vehicle with flashing lights on it and told a convoy was coming through and that I'd have to stay where I was until it had passed. This was fine with me. Interesting things travel in convoys. It turned out to be some sort of multi-wheeled heavy equipment transporter. I'd have gotten better pictures of it if several cars hadn't thought I was just sitting still for the fun of it and tried to go around me through the intersection, only to be stopped by Official Looking Guy. The Astronaut Hall Of Fame was nice. Not as big or as cool as the Space Center, but full of interesting artifacts from the history of American manned spaceflight. One of the most touching items on display was the telegram from President and Mrs. Ford to the family of Gus Grissom who, along with crewmates Edward White and Roger Chaffee, was killed in a cabin fire during a launch pad test for the Apollo 1 mission.
My last mission before leaving for the airport was to get a signed print that cartoonist Brian Basset (Red and Rover, Adam@Home) had done especially for the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program. I needed to leave at 1:30 to get to the airport on time for my flight and he was scheduled to be signing prints beginning at 1:00... It was close, but I made it.
The rest of the trip was in no way extraordinary... I got the car turned in on time and made it through security with no issues. Got to my gate in plenty of time to grab a salad from the concession stand before boarding began. The bus ride home from Logan was unremarkable and so was my drive home after that. Of course, after the exciting trip I had just taken, it probably would have really sucked if anything on the trip home was exciting by comparison.