Space travellers...

Okay so call me a kid...or.. Just haven't quite grown up yet?...or.. What a waste of time...or.. At 2:28:12 in the morning...are you kidding! ...or ...it doesn't even make page 6 news. I don't care. My childhood memories of camping out in the backyard of our Meachem street apartment with my friend Larry. Laying there on our backs on an old blanket looking skyward. Waiting for that moment when the first Sputnik flew overhead hundreds of miles above. Or... at the school auditorium when everyone was gathered around a couple of black and white tv's waiting to see that first step on the moon. The excitement is still real and this will be my first live, standing right there, feeling, hearing , and seeing a Space Shuttle blast off into space. I've got the viewing site all picked out, plenty of warm clothes, cameras, tripods, and faithful wife in tow. We're getting there about 4 hours early; not knowing what to expect concerning parking or the size of the crowd. Maybe the public has been dulled by about 50 years of space launches and strained necks looking into the heavens for a tiny moving thingamajig and no one will be there...we'll soon see. For sure I will be there.

As it turned out, 4 hours early was none too soon. Parking was tough to come by but we found a spot and set up our position near water's edge 12.1 miles from the launch pad 39a. We could easily see the giant flood lights illuminating the pad as they produced a strange skyward fan of light that was beginning to bounce off the incoming cloud deck. To the right of the pad is the huge vehicle assembly building where they attach the shuttle to the fuel tanks.

I took two cameras. One on a tripod to capture a long exposure of the entire launch sequence and the other to grab sequential images during the lift-off. As I had plenty of time to get setup, there was lots of time to check out the other folks wandering in to see the fireworks. One guy stopped by and was a little over-awed at the equipment I had and wanted to ask a bunch of questions. No problem as it's always fun to talk of one of my passions. I also had a ham radio with me that was re-transmitting the play-by-play of the count-down activity on the launch pad. He said "you must be pretty well connected to have such access to the pad". I told him, with a smile, " if I was so well connected how come I was 12 miles away like everyone else?" We both had a little laugh but I'm not so sure he thought the comment that funny.

After a bit, two young men in their mid-twenties came by and made camp right next to me. One, a throw-back of the 70's' was sort of a hippie type; long hair, full beard, army fatigue jacket and a beret. With a small digital camera and tripod he went through quite an elaborate setup. He was trying to figure out how to hold a large pair of binoculars in front of his tiny digital camera so as to get a magnified image of the upcoming blast. It was fun to watch him as his desire to get a picture was high but his equipment just wasn't up to the task. His friend was on his way to getting drunk rather than take a picture. With a screw top bottle of wine hidden in a plastic bag he decided that I was the person he wanted to spend the next several hours talking at. These young men had driven down from upstate New York over the past 16 hours and apparently someone told them a rocket was going off so somehow they found me to share the moment. My luck was changing from bad to worse.

As the time ticked by before launch, Sharon began thinking out loud why she had agreed to accompany me. It kind of reminded me of my kids when travelling years ago...'are we there yet Dad?'. About every 5 minutes she reminded me that only 5 minutes had gone by and it was still 3 hours until launch. To make matter worse, I told her the rocket may not go on time and the night was young. My error. Luckily, I overheard someone nearby talking about Battle Creek ,(our old home town) so I not so politely, hollered over to them asking if they were from there. The one guy said yes and we quickly asked about what high school he attended (Lakeview 1961) and other goofy stuff. Before too long, the guy wandered over and he a Sharon began talking. I continued my intense, almost Zen-like, preparation for the launch and turned to ask her something, but she was gone. A short distance away, she was now chatting it up with the home town contingent: in her element again and not counting the minutes till we leave.

Keep in mind there are now several thousand people packed into this little 4 acre park so there are folks of all types. Just after midnight someone in the back pulled out a trumpet and played a course of "America the Beautiful". One of those impromptu patriotic moments that drew a nice round of applause. It would have been nice if the astronauts could have heard it.

As launch timed neared, I mentally went through all the stuff I wanted to do with my cameras. I then tried to control the now drunk guy next to me and the 6 foot 6 inch giant who thought the best spot to view the launch was in front of my cameras. All I could think was 50 years of waiting to see a big space ship blast off now ruined by Attilla the Hun and the new town drunk. Attilla was the easy one as I just asked him to stand still and not move during the launch (he agreed), drunk guy was urged to get closer to the water to get a better photo with his digital camera (he stumbled off and out of view just in time). All was clear and the time had arrived. Listening to the countdown, the crowd hearing my radio transmission and several others in the crowd, began the cadence ...9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1...ignition.

Holy Toledo...this fiery beast was magnificent. Rising slowing into the Eastern sky, it quickly accelerates and arcs into the lowering cloud cover. Not until it reaches the clouds does the sound reach our location 12 miles away. The low rumble builds to continuous roar as it moves out. While the cloud cover masked about 8 minutes of the flight, the first two minutes made up for the loss. The launch was all it's cracked up to be. If you're in the area, find your way to see it.

STS-123 Endeavour made the journey tonight to link with the International Space Station. All five astronauts are safe and well into their mission. It was an honor for me to have witnessed their launch and will remain a life-long memory.