Wednesday, October 06, 2021

The Way We Were Wednesday - Space Shuttle


 When I was in high school, my parents bought a house in a small city across the river from the Kennedy Space Center.  I was living there as the space shuttle project was being developed.  By the time of the first launch I was working in Orlando, but I could drive to my parents house on the coast in less than an hour, and I often went over and spent the night, especially when they were out of town in the summer.  

I was there standing on the banks of the river for the first shuttle launch.  I actually went twice for it, the first time the count was down to mere seconds and shut down.  On the second try, it went.  You see it, before you hear it, you hear it before you feel it.  And Yes, you feel it, from 10 miles away you feel the vibration, the pulse of the immense power.  As the program progressed, you could get passes to get close, out on the barrier island, within 5 miles or so of the launch site.  The most spectacular were night launches.  

I was working in Orlando when the Challenger exploded.  The window in my office faced the wrong direction, I was talking with a client on the phone whose office faced east.  He simply said, "something is not right, I will call you back and hung up."  I stepped outside looked east and could see the vapor trails crossed in ways they had never crossed before, and ending, just sort of stopping in the sky rather than extending over the horizon.  This was before the internet, we didn't have television in the offices, I was glued to the radio.  It was several days before work resumed, before we picked up that phone call where it left off.  

12 comments:

  1. OMG I can imagine the feeling.
    It should be a powerful experience, to be there for a shuttle launch. It should be like being on an airstrip times a million.

    XOXO

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  2. I never thought about the effects of a launch being felt so far away.

    It broke my heart to see the Challenger on TV but in person it must have been awful.

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  3. I would have loved to have witnessed one of those shuttle launches, but seeing the Challenger would have been devastating. I think I told you I camped out under the stars with a bunch of guys from college one spring break. We could see across to the space station while we dined on shrimp freshly caught (not by us) right across the road.

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  4. You are lucky to have seen those launches when they first began. Your experience on the day of the Challenger launch is similar to mine. That tragedy struck me pretty hard.

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    Replies
    1. It is one of a couple of pauses in my life

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  5. The Challenger explosion was a terrible thing. I remember it too.

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    Replies
    1. The way it happened, live on camera made a difference

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  6. I miss the exciting days we were all looking forward to space exploration
    It seems now a hackneyed endeavor.

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