Congrats to NASA and the Discovery crew!
Tobey and I were preparing to head off to daycare this morning when I got a call from Carrie.
Carrie –”Don’t forget that the shuttle launches around 8:30 this morning!”
Me — “Oh sweet - thanks! I’ll record it on Tivo for you…”
And with that, it was cemented that Tobey would not be going to daycare until *after* the space shuttle launch. I told him that we would get to see a “rocket ship” take off, and he was quite excited about the whole thing. So, we watched the remaining minutes tick by and then counted down from 10 along with the rest of the world. Tobey was quite enthralled by the orange fire from the rocket boosters and all the white smoke that was created. He asked to watch it several more times once the shuttle had turned into a dot when it was out of reach of the earth-bound or low orbit cameras. (Tobey has not had to live in a time without Tivo!) I really enjoyed all the new cameras that they employed during this launch - from the new one on the rocket booster that even was able to clearly show the separation from the shuttle, to the ones they used in low orbit to give us a longer lasting view of Discovery as it headed into space. I still remember the last time we had a long delay between launches (after the Challenger tragedy in the late 80’s) and how I skipped class up at CSU to watch NASA get back into the business of exploring space.
Since I was not able to finish this post on Tuesday, the elation of the launch has backtracked a bit as NASA again had to ground their fleet of shuttles until they can better handle the problem with foam falling from the fuel tanks. It was a piece of foam that was blamed for the Columbia disaster in 2003, and it happened again to Discovery on Tuesday. While the Discovery crew is not said to be in any danger, its still a scary thing to see the same thing happen on the first launch after spending two years trying to fix the problem. Carrie and I also have a vested financial interest in NASA’s struggles, as our condo in Cocoa Beach rents much more easily in the offseason when NASA is sending people to work at Cape Canaveral and shuttles into space.
Read more: Discovery docks with International Space Station
Also - look for the great slide show in the “RELATED” box (Shuttle returns to space)
July 28th, 2005 at 8:22 am
Glad that Tobey is following in his Father’s footsteps and being introduced to
the concepts of rockets and “outer space” at a young age.
July 29th, 2005 at 9:38 am
The picture shows how interested Tobey is in the launching. Clicking on all the ‘blue’ possibilities brings up lots of information. Out Salina Journal had the story about the discoveries in South Africa this morning. Your web scooped the news. Enjoyed seeing pictures of your condo again.
August 9th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Discover is home safe!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/08/09/shuttle.future/index.html
May 19th, 2006 at 1:30 am
[...] One, I have always been fascinated by NASA and space - quite a few of the papers I wrote in High School and college were about the Space program. I still remember the Challenger accident in 1986 when I was running an errand for my History teacher and heard teachers announce the dreadful news. I remember when the shuttle program got back on its feet a few years later - skipping class in college to watch the launch. After the Columbia disaster in 2003, I remember watching the Discovery re-start the program again in 2005, this time with Tobey. [...]