Day One

Our day started at the NASA Media Accreditation building. There we showed our id's, picked up our badges and received our swag bag. The NASA folks were nice enough to give us a backpack with mission pins, patches, stickers and lots of other cool items. After picking up our badges we drove through security and parked in this parking lot. Quite the view right? I was amazed they let us park here. The day was starting off good!

After parking we followed the signs down to the Tweetup tent. This is a picture I took while we were walking by. Such a historic location. I was in awe being there. This is the same location people were watching Saturn 5's launch for the moon from and I was actually standing there.


Here is the badge we had to wear at all times. Now that I'm home I still find myself wanting to wear it.



Day one consisted of lectures in the morning and a tour in the afternoon. The picture above is Mike Massimino and I. Ever since his spacewalks to fix Hubble he's been my favorite astronaut so meeting him was something I was really looking forward to. I was really struck by how nice everyone was. They had no problem taking pictures and answering any questions we had. Massimino had to do an interaction with Elmo for Sesame Street. After that Doug Wheelock joined him and they talked to us for quite a long time. Bill Gerstenmaier was next (Associate Administer for Space Operations) and came in for awhile. I asked him about the main engine fuel valve that they replaced the week before and he spent about 5 minutes explaining it to me. Very cool. While he was talking a huge storm hit and the entire KSC was shut down due to lightening so he was stuck there for about 45 minutes. There was even talk of the shuttle taking a lightening strike. Turns out it was close to the pad but didn't damage any systems. After this weather everyone was very apprehensive about tomorrow. Some of the other people that talked to us were Angie Brewer (Atlantis flow director) and Tracy Trumm and Justin Kuglerm of the ISS.




After lunch in the NASA cafeteria we started our tour. For some reason I was really excited about eating there. The food was good but nothing special. The sandwich was about like Subway. Due to some strong storms in the morning RSS roll back had been delayed so we weren't sure if we would be able to see it. Turns out we did get to see it. The massive structure that encloses the shuttle protecting it from weather slowly rolled away and exposed Atlantis. I was able to take some very cool pictures while there. The location we were bussed to was amazingly close to the launch pad.

Doug Wheelock and I at the perimeter of Pad 39A

After viewing RSS retract we were dropped off at the Saturn 5 center for an hour. I spent the time in the gift shop getting shirts for everyone. When our time there was up we hopped back on the bus for a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building. This is the massive (5th largest in the world by volume) building where the shuttle is mated to the external tank and SRB's. It was very cool walking in knowing that every shuttle mission has started here. One sobering moment was when our guide pointed out to us that the remains of Columbia were stored in this building. I didn't know that. After the tour were free to go so we headed back to Orlando to get ready for launch day.

Launch day

On to day two. Paul (my carpool buddy) and I decided that to beat the traffic we would drive over to the Cape at around 3am. It worked, we beat the traffic but got there too early. The guard said, "you're not getting in until 5, u-turn and exit." We spent an hour in the media accreditation parking lot with a bunch of others going to the Tweetup. You could feel the nervous energy even sitting in the parking lot that early.

Once we parked the car in the VAB parking lot and walked to the press site (about a quarter mile) we were greeted with this sight. Truly spectacular especially when you think that in a few hours this serene scene will be one of fire and thunder.

An the morning progressed things got busier around the press site. There was an electric feeling in the air. Our Tweetup host said that this was the most media they had registered since the John Glenn flight in the mid 90's
The previous day NASA had forecast only a 30% chance of weather being favorable for launch so we were all keeping our fingers crossed that the clouds would hold off. As the clocked ticked down towards launch time my anxiety seemed to be going the opposite direction.
There were even a few celebrities around to watch the launch. Seth Green talked to us about supporting NASA and was nice enough to take pictures with whoever wanted. Bob Crippen (the pilot on STS-1) and Tony Antonelli (a veteran of 2 shuttle flights) came to the tent to talk to us. Tony Antonelli was a great speaker and very funny. Bob Crippen told us that his only thought while he was sitting in the Shuttle on the first ever launch was, "God, please don't let me screw up." Around 9:00 an officer from the 45th weather squadron gave us a weather brief. Things were still not looking too good. Even though it was nice out they were still expecting clouds to move in by launch time.

This picture was taken around 8am as the astronauts drove to the pad. It was quite fun watching the convoy escorted by a helicopter with snipers hanging out the door drive by. These were the kind of things that made it feel like I was not just watching a launch but a part of it all. As the minutes ticked down were all amazed that the weather seemed to be holding out. At about T-30 minutes I started to feel like this might actually happen! We could hear the NASA weather briefings to launch control and the weather was mostly green but every now and then it would go red for cloud cover and you could hear a collective groan. At T-9 minutes the launch director took his final poll. When the weather officer said we are go a huge cheer erupted. The excitement went up another notch. Everyone found a place along the water to watch and photograph. At T-1 minute I'm thinking this is it, I'm going to see it go today! Then I heard something that made my heart drop, hold for a failure at T-31 seconds. The launch window was only open for 5 minutes so whatever it was they had to figure it out quickly. Minutes ticked by then over the scanner I heard launch control tell the astronauts to close and lock visors and initiate o2 flow. I knew we were back in business. Turns out it was a faulty sensor on the gaseous oxygen vent hood that retracts before launch. It had to be visually cleared then the count resumed. When the call, "we have main engine start" went out I took a second and thought to myself, " this is actually going to happen."


And this is what happened. Liftoff of Atlantis! It seemed to jump into the air and head down range. The sound didn't reach us for several seconds. First the main engine sound hit. It was a far off sounding rumble but when the SRB noise hit, it about knocked me over. A deep pulsating rumble washed over us unlike anything i have experienced. Almost like Atlantis was trying to rip the sky apart. The first picture was the only decent close up i captured. After that I was shaking so much I couldn't hold the camera steady.



So I panned out and took a few shots. This is about how it looked to us. Atlantis kept picking up speed and before I knew it she disappeared into the clouds.

And that brings me to the end of my NASA Tweetup adventure. For one brief time I was in the middle of the action and it made me feel like I mattered. After the launch I even had KRTV calling me for an interview. A truly amazing couple of days that I will never forget. Thank you from the bottom of my heart NASA and the NASA tweetup team.

My Amazing Day at the Kennedy Space Center

What an amazing day. It was almost surreal being that up close and personal with NASA's inner workings. I'll do a better post later, but here are a few pictures I took until then.






Hubble astronaut Mike Massimino and I






Just after RSS roll around






A great view of Atlantis!






The Shuttle is huge in person!

(Disclaimer, BlogPress doesn't work as well as I thought it would on my IPad. I did this post from the hotel in Orlando and had trouble even getting this much done.)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad