View to a Launch

Up until a few days ago, I had never seen a space shuttle as anything more than a tiny orange dot in the sky (except on TV, of course). Even though I have lived in the Tampa Bay area for about 28 years, I had never gotten any closer to a launch than that.  Being the procrastinator that I am, I naturally waited until it was my last chance to see one up close.

Friday, July, 8, 2011, was a cloudy morning. There was only a 30 percent chance that Space Shuttle Atlantis would be able to launch for its final mission at 11:26 AM. Still we drove to William J. Manzo Memorial Park on the waterfront in Titusville, and along with an estimated 1 million other people in the area, held our breath for hours while we waited. And then it happened.

It was a little late and we were unaware of the drama going on with a technical glitch and not too much time left in the window to launch. All of a sudden I heard a crowd of people to my right start chanting, "5!  4!  3! . . ," so I hurriedly poised my camera. "There goes the smoke!" somebody said, and up it went.

There was applause and cheering several different times before Atlantis was lost to our sight in the clouds. The feeling in the air was electric. I got goose bumps. My Mom got teary-eyed. The same feeling of unity, patriotism and hope that you feel while watching fireworks on the 4th of July was woven through the crowd.  I cannot fully explain the feeling of excitement and triumph.  Not to mention we were completely stunned that it actually happened after the threatening weather forecasts and the ever-present possibilities of technical glitches. That and the fact that we had driven for hours and made hotel reservations and dragged nearly all of our known relatives along with us.

My husband actually saw the very first shuttle launch on April 12, 1981, when he was 9 years old.  And now he's seen the last shuttle launch alongside our oldest daughter, who is 10 years old.  It's a nice little bookend side story.

Well, cross that one off the bucket list.  And to quote many of the signs and banners that were posted at local businesses in the Titusville area, "Godspeed, Atlantis."