The End of an Era

The last flight of the Space Shuttle program took place today when Endeavour was piggybacked on a 747 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida across the USA to Los Angeles. It will eventually be on display at the California Science Centre.

Space shuttle Endeavour loaded onto the 747.... image from NASA's Image of the Day Gallery.

I'm a little bit sad about the end of the Space Shuttle program. I'll miss seeing those smiling astronauts march out of the building, dressed in their space suits and carrying their helmets, and waving confidently. I always considered it was an amazing feat of engineering to get the shuttle up into space and home again safely, although not everything always went smoothly. Two shuttles and their crews were tragically lost. I watched many of the launches and landings on TV, and I was lucky enough to witness the launch of Endeavour first hand when I was in Florida a couple of years ago. Spectacular!

A couple of additional facts: Endeavour was the replacement for the destroyed Challenger shuttle. It made its debut in 1992 and flew 25 times, logged 198 million kilometres in space, and circled Earth nearly 4,700 times before it was retired. 

Another unforgettable space shuttle moment came on a hot June day in 1983. (Was it really that long ago???) I was at work in Toronto, and looking out of the top floor office window I saw the prototype shuttle Enterprise fly by on top of NASA's first 747 shuttle carrier. Not the normal view from my office window!

Enterprise was on it's way to (or possibly coming back from) the Paris Air Show and made a short side trip to Canada...... probably because Canada had contributed to the space programme with the Canadarm, which was built in Toronto by SPAR Aerospace. Enterprise never flew in space. It was used to practice landings on earth and verify the flight worthiness of the design, and it was retired in 1985. It is now on display at the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan.

Mission Home Improvement - STS-126

It was truly spectacular!

NASA Mission STS-126 "Endeavour" carrying seven astronauts lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Friday evening right on time at 7:55pm. It's heading to the International Space Station to make a few improvements to make life easier for the occupants.

And we were there to witness it! WOW!

The night before the launch, The Space Cadet spent about an hour looking at Google Earth, planning the best vantage point to see the launch. He decided Hwy 1 in Titusville, so we headed south on Friday afternoon. People and cars were everywhere, tremendous excitement in the air. We asked a group of tough looking bikers the best place and they said "Right here... just park and we'll show you where to go".

They were right, it was a bit of vacant grassland at the back of Wendy's Burgers, about 200 people had already assembled with chairs, radios, TVs, cameras, telescopes, children, etc., with a clear view across the Inland Waterway towards the launch gantry, which was lit up like a Christmas tree. You couldn't miss it.

We scrambled over a rusty fence and joined a group (including the bikers) sitting along the river bank. We had over an hour to wait, but time passed quickly, with so many people to talk to. After all, everyone was there for the same reason.

And as we waited, a gorgeous full moon rose into the clear sky.

Finally, the countdown... five... four... three... through my binoculars I could see smoke or steam billowing up... two... one... a huge burst of orange flame lit up the sky and the rocket started lifting into the night. I could hardly breathe. What an incredible sight. And a few seconds later the sound of the rocket reached us across the water... a huge rumbling boom, such power!

Cheers, applause, lots of whooping and hollering, people were celebrating a successful launch.

I followed the rocket with the binoculars as far as I could. I could even see the red hot booster rockets fall towards the sea. Incredible to think that seven human beings were sitting on top of that fiery rocket, trusting their lives to technology (and perhaps keeping their fingers crossed, knocking on wood, etc.).

Speed reached 1,000mph in just a few seconds.
It's going 1,500mph within 5 miles from the launch.
By the time it's gone 73 miles, the speed is 4,000mph.
By the time it reaches 10,000mph, it's 64 miles up.
By the time it reaches 16,000mph, it's 66 miles up, and has travelled 760 miles.

Space shuttle vapour trail lit up by a beautiful full moon.

What a sight.

First pic borrowed from NASA web site, other pics taken by The Space Cadet.