130 GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM

One of the major bucket list items was to witness a launch from Kennedy Space Center and as a result I checked and re-checked the schedules so that a launch date would fall somewhat in the middle of my trip.  It was all set for January 29^th, 2019, about a week before I was due to go home.  I was so looking forward to it.  Just so exciting to fulfil a childhood dream.  Unfortunately, there’s nothing so fickle as launch dates.

About a week before the date, I logged on just to confirm the date and get a better idea of the time.  Imagine my dismay, when I could not find the launch anywhere on the schedule.  I could not find a reason for it to be missing either.  I later managed to find out the launch had been moved to February 9, roughly 4 days after I get home.  It’s a major disappointment, but life goes on and I’m not going to give up an opportunity to see the space center for the third time.

So, I booked a shuttle, pardon the pun, for January 24.  The shuttle leaves from the Universal bus loop at 8:00 AM.  Just to be sure, I set my alarm for 6:00 AM so I could get downstairs and have breakfast before leaving.  Like an idiot, I streamed the Canucks game the night before, and wish I hadn’t as it was a shitty game.

I woke up to a wicked headache, and looked outside to find a torrential downpour, thunder and lightning.  I got ready, took some Tylenol and headed downstairs, only to find the cafeteria completely closed.  I was there too early for even them.  Oh well, on to Starbucks.  At least they were open, and I settled for a breakfast of a cinnamon bun and a Grande Americano.  Next it was out to the bus stop to catch the bus down to the Universal loop.  When I boarded, I saw two guys sitting across from me.  One was wearing a Canada baseball hat and a Blue Jays jacket.  We all ended up at the stop for Kennedy space Center.  It turns out they are from Abbotsford.

Finally, the shuttle arrived about 10 minutes late, but we boarded and got underway.  We made several more stops to pick up other space fans and then were off.  Here we are in the middle of this downpour going down the highway, slightly faster than the posted speed limit of 70 mph.  The ride was supposed to be an hour, but we made it in 40 minutes.  There was almost no traffic.

Once there, we headed in and started the tour at the Atlantis Shuttle display.  Inside after watching a couple of movies, about the missions of the Atlantis shuttle, the screen finished with a look at the nose of the Atlantis.  Only, it wasn’t a movie anymore, it was the actual Atlantis Space Shuttle.  So, impressive.  The shuttle is mounted on an angle that looks to be about 45 degrees.  In fact, it is mounted at exactly 43.21 degrees at the demand of one of the astronauts who flew here.  It represents the last 4 seconds of the countdown.

You can still see the scorch and burn marks on the shielding tiles caused by it’s last re-entry into the atmosphere.  The cargo bay doors are open and inside poking out is the Canadarm.  On the other side is a second Canadarm.  This was installed specifically for inspecting the shuttle for damage before re-entry.  All of which came about by the destruction of Columbia, whose leading-edge wing tiles were damaged on launch and nobody knew.  Astronauts until the end of the shuttle program were trained to conduct repairs to avoid another such disaster.

Moving on, we boarded another bus to head out to the Apollo and Saturn 5 display.  You can read all you want about how big the Saturn 5 rocket is (363 feet tall) almost 4 football fields, but you have no concept until you do the 10-minute walk from engine to nose.  This thing is massive.  One engine nozzle alone would easily hold two of me standing on shoulders and I’m 6’3” tall.  It’s 12.3 feet in diameter.  There were numerous other things to see and do.  The most moving were the tributes to Apollo 1 astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee as well as tributes to the two destroyed Shuttles.

Afterwards, we headed home to Orlando.  I was exhausted before getting back and still had another bus to catch back to the hotel.  I was wondering, what Canada Customs people were going to think when I came back from a three-week vacation with nothing to declare.  The trip to NASA fixed that as I ended up buying T-shirts, Sweatshirts, a hat and a jacket, all displaying the NASA logo.  Now I have something to declare.

Tomorrow is a forced rest day.  Somehow, I tweaked my back.  It started on the bus trip home and I think I was sitting in an awkward position.  By the time I got upstairs, I was in agony, to the point of feeling sick.  So much so, I couldn’t finish my dinner.  In the morning, there was still some soreness, but much better.