Shuttle

We were lucky enough to go with a friend who works at NASA to see the last launch of shuttle Atlantis. It was truly amazing to watch it that close. It was so bright it hurt your eyes to look at it. The rumble that came about 5 seconds later was the best part. My video doesn't quite do it justice. It brought tears to my eyes it was such a neat experience! The weather even was bearable because we had a nice bay breeze. What a great experience for my kids. Logan was upset because he wanted to go with them and I said you needed to be an astronaut and he said, well I can be one!!! Maybe later buddy!


A few things I learned while I was with my NASA store of knowledge (our friend, Michelle). ~The space shuttle is what goes into space (booster rockets and all) and the orbital is what comes back from space (the airplane looking piece) ~ The orbital can lap the earth in 90 minutes ~ The space shuttle leaves the earth going at least 17,000mph with no traffic, we left the site going 5 mph and tons of traffic ~ If a bird is on the shuttle before take off, the launch will be delayed because you can't shew it off, throw rocks or yell for it to move. (I wonder if those environmentalists wait for bugs, birds to fly off their car before they leave or get in it?) ~The landing strip for the orbital is the longest runway is the US and maybe the world. They have to deploy a parachute just to slow down ~ If the crew can't land in Florida because of weather, they land in California and pay $1 million to piggy back on a 757 back to Florida. ~Kennedy Space center deals with manned missions and Cape Canaveral deals with unmanned missions~ Pretty interesting stuff to me.

We had a wonderful day and are grateful we had the opportunity