Monday, March 23, 2009

My First Rocket Launch



When I was three, I remember my brother keeping a scrapbook of John Glenn's first orbits in space. For years afterwards I would crack open the yellowed pages of his black covered composition book into which newspaper clippings were heavily glued (he was only eleven at the time after all).

When I was seven I built a large model replica of the Saturn Five rocket all by myself. The model, when finished, was about three feet high and all of the stages separated and there was even a lunar module that folded up and tucked inside the final stage.

As a family we watched the space flights of Apollo 7, 8, 9, 10 and on that fateful day in July 1969, we sat transfixed in front of our black and white TV at the cottage, transfixed to the ghostly images coming from the moon as Neil Armstrong floated down the LEM's ladder.

As I got older, my fascination with space flight never abated. I read Mitchner's Space and Wolf's The Right Stuff. I joined NASA's junior space program that came with a library of books you could fill with stickers that were regularly sent to you. My favourite toy was astronaut Major Matt Mason. I wanted to be the first man on Mars.

I've been to he Kennedy Space Centre 3 times. 10 or 15 years ago I had the good fortune of meeting Buzz Aldrin (the second man on the moon) in the green room at the Dini Petty Show and ended up with an autographed photo.

The one thing I was missing though was watching a live rocket launch. That finally happened last week.

The family and I drove to Florida for a March break vacation. Because we couldn't get in to our rented condo until Monday, the plan was to drive to Titusville (outside the Kennedy Space Center) to arrive Sunday afternoon, tour the Kennedy Space Center on Monday and then drive in to Orlando to set up shop for the week. I knew that there was supposed to be a shuttle launch a few days earlier but I didn't know that it had been delayed because of a hydrogen leak. At dinner on Saturday night, Mason said that his grandfather told him that there was going to be a launch on Sunday. I was stunned. I grabbed the blackberry and googled Nasa and sure enough there it was...7:43pm on Sunday night - the launch of Discovery. The boys had never seen me so excited and I began to obsess for the next 20 some odd hours.

We checked into the Super 8 in Titusville around 4pm (we paid $55 for a room that was now going for $135) and the boys had a quick swim before we headed out to pick up a pizza and head down to the Indian River to get a prime spot from which to watch the launch.

Though we had to wait over two hours, it was well worth it. I don't know that pictures or video can do it justice but it was great to be able to scratch this off the bucket list. Now Mason says he wants to be the first man on Mars - could happen!

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