My dad and I recently went to see the launch of STS-134, the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour. On April 29, 2011 my dad and I made the drive starting at around 5:30 a.m. to the East Coast. Once we got through the long line and in the gate, we set up and waited. We went to the gift shop, we walked around the Rocket Garden, etc. After enjoying a sandwich from Sonny's BarBQ, we heard that the launch was scrubbed. I felt sorry for the people who had waited in line for three hours for a bus to the Causeway. This was around 12:30 p.m. We walked around the complex for around an hour, then left. It took five hours to get home.
On Sunday, May 15th, 2011, I was literally restless. I only got 45 minutes of sleep. We left at 10:30 that night. We got to the Space Center around 1:00 a.m. The traffic was not too bad, but I was tired. My dad had also gotten little sleep. In the distance, I saw the spotlights shining on launchpad 39A. That was cool! The Rocket Garden was also lit up. We got good seats and tried to relax. Again like on our first visit, we walked around and explored. We also went to the gift shop again. I went to the Rocket Garden later in the wee hours of the morning to see the moon setting behind the mock-up Saturn 1-B rocket. That was nice. The first sign of daylight came around 5:30. I knew it wouldn't be much longer now.
There was more commotion starting around 7:30. People were trying to squeeze into the smallest places to see the launch. I became very anxious in the last 15 minutes before the launch. Then, we heard T-10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Liftoff! I started the video at about the 3 second mark. 8 seconds after launch, we saw this huge fireball come above the trees. That was awesome. 10 seconds later, it went into the clouds. About 40 seconds later, the sound came. It got very loud, and there was very loud crackling, like one huge campfire. The ground shook for a few seconds, too. That was the fun part. I really enjoyed literally being shaken up by the shuttle. I kept the video on until it was 2 minutes 28 seconds long. You could still hear noise. I caught the noise-and possibly some vibration from the shuttle, on my video. That was very cool...everything was awesome!
We were out of the space center within 30 minutes after launch. Surprisingly, the traffic was much better than our first trip to the visitors complex. My dad mentioned that we should have done this years ago, and that we were going to try to go the the Atlantis launch in July. I got some sleep in the car, but not much. Once near home we stopped and got a slice of pizza. After that, I showered and slept for an hour and a half. I was still very tired that evening.
Until next time.....
Matthew
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