05.17.11
Posted in Traveling at 6:55 pm by Rebekah
Today I watch the sun rise over Daytona Beach, and then had breakfast at an all-you-can-eat pancake restaurant (Old Spanish Sugar Mill). You grill your own pancakes! They were very good, and I had blueberries in mine. 🙂 That was in De Leon Springs State Park.
I walked around the park a little bit, and then later went back to Daytona for an “all-access” tour of Daytona International Speedway. I’m not into NASCAR, but I was still quite impressed. Our tour guide drove our tram all the way around the 2.5-mile track, and we even got to stop and walk up the steeply-sloped track at the start/finish line. We stopped at pit road and walked through victory lane, and got a tour of everything in the infield (which is very large!). We saw a few race cars in garages in the infield as well. Finally we went up the Sprint Tower to the press box, from which we had a great view of the racetrack and part of Daytona. We could even see the Atlantic Ocean in the distance, as well as Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, 18 miles away!
I took a lot of photos, and not to sound like a broken record lately, but I will post some later (might even be a couple months ’til things slow down a bit more, but hopefully not that long!). 🙂
I fly out of Orlando early tomorrow morning. Once again I had a great time. The previous trip felt more like a vacation, as it was longer, I saw more stuff, and I wasn’t getting up before the sun every day. But this trip was more closely centered around the RSS retraction and ultimately the launch, which was absolutely fantastic!!!
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05.16.11
Posted in Astronomy, Space Shuttle at 8:15 pm by Rebekah
I uploaded my HD video of the space shuttle launch to YouTube (link below). Crazy to think the guys we waved to in the astrovan early this morning are now orbiting the earth!!
Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch
Afterwards I checked out the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (we got free tickets), which was pretty awesome (LOVED the space shuttle launch simulator!!).
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who made my dream come true.
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Posted in Astronomy, Space Shuttle at 8:52 am by Rebekah
WOW. The STUNNING view. The DEAFENING crackle and pop and ROAR. The RUMBLE through my body. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTICALLY INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!! I started crying at just under a minute to launch, and then I really cried through the launch! It was a very emotional experience, one which I shall carry with me forever.
More on this later, including more photos and video, but I shall post a couple of my favorites for now. I’m hanging out around the press site for a while now, just waiting for traffic to thin out a bit.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Space Shuttle Endeavour on her final mission, STS134
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05.15.11
Posted in Astronomy, Space Shuttle at 2:23 pm by Rebekah
Viewed the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure today, from a few hundred yards from space shuttle Endeavour.
Words cannot express how INCREDIBLE the experience of standing so close to the pad was. So without further ado, I’ll let a few of my photos do the talking!
Be sure to CLICK TO ENLARGE!
Launch is still scheduled for 8:56 am EDT tomorrow, and it’s looking good!
GO ENDEAVOUR!!!
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05.14.11
Posted in Astronomy, Space Shuttle, Traveling at 4:40 pm by Rebekah
Well, I’m back in DeLand, Florida for NASA Tweetup Redux, as many are calling it.
If all goes well, those of us invited to the Tweetup a couple weeks ago will get to watch the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure (wraps around the shuttle) around noon tomorrow, from about 600 yards away! This is what I was waiting up for (and never saw) the night I saw this incredible shelf cloud over the Vehicle Assembly Building.
I have to arrive around 11 am (times are all EDT) and will be back at the press site by about 1:30 pm.
Then I’m going to have to get up really early Monday morning for the launch. The launch is scheduled for 8:56 am, but if we want to be there to see the astronauts drive by in the astrovan (and not turn around, as they did the last time I was there!), I need to be there no later than 5 am. It takes about an hour and a half from where I’m staying to the Cape, so you do the math…
There is a frontal squall line rolling through Florida at present; hopefully there will not be any lingering, morning thunderstorms on Monday. We also need storm-free weather tomorrow for the RSS retraction.
I flew through Atlanta today, and we had about a 20 – 30 minute delay in air (to Orlando), as we had to fly around thunderstorms on the Florida Coast. We flew out over the Atlantic for a little ways before circling back around. It was still a rather turbulent landing, though. After I picked up my rental car, I drove through some torrential downpours to get here.
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