Post by The Muse on Jun 2, 2011 7:08:02 GMT -5
While enjoying great food and even greater company on Book Release Day, I got a phone call from a good friend.
Would I like to go and see the Shuttle Atlantis during the last Rollout that will ever take place in the Shuttle Program?
uuuhhhhh........YEAH!
This friend happens to work for NASA, with clearance to go WHERE EVER he chooses on the site. He even told us once about climbing up into the engines of the shuttle. He is certified to fix nearly EVERYTHING on that bird, so he gets away with it.
He had a pass to bring as many people as he wished to the rollout, and he chose us. So we went down around 6. It was an atmosphere of quiet excitement. There was music playing over loudspeakers, people cooking out and laughing. It was like a summer party.
We watched the sun go down. The giant doors of the Vehicle Assembly building were open when we got there, so we could see Atlantis, already mated to the fuel tanks, sittin on the pad atop the crawler. At about 8:30 she started to move.
Once it cleared the building, they brought up the bright spotlights on her and everyone started cheering.
It was incredibly large. It moved about a mile an hour and was an absolute behemoth. Nick was explainging the different aspects of the shuttle, the whys and wherefores of its design, what led to different failures in the past in other shuttles . And the fact that the Atlantis was originally meant to be a private vehicle for the U.S. Airforce!
It wasnt hard watching that amazing sight to find yourself dreaming of the stars and the adventures to be had, or to be written about!
It was amazing. It was also poignent....this was never going to happen again. When a ship once again leaves this building for the launch pad, it will never again be the shuttle that we have grown up watching depart this planet for adventures in space.
Good bye Atlantis.
Would I like to go and see the Shuttle Atlantis during the last Rollout that will ever take place in the Shuttle Program?
uuuhhhhh........YEAH!
This friend happens to work for NASA, with clearance to go WHERE EVER he chooses on the site. He even told us once about climbing up into the engines of the shuttle. He is certified to fix nearly EVERYTHING on that bird, so he gets away with it.
He had a pass to bring as many people as he wished to the rollout, and he chose us. So we went down around 6. It was an atmosphere of quiet excitement. There was music playing over loudspeakers, people cooking out and laughing. It was like a summer party.
We watched the sun go down. The giant doors of the Vehicle Assembly building were open when we got there, so we could see Atlantis, already mated to the fuel tanks, sittin on the pad atop the crawler. At about 8:30 she started to move.
Once it cleared the building, they brought up the bright spotlights on her and everyone started cheering.
It was incredibly large. It moved about a mile an hour and was an absolute behemoth. Nick was explainging the different aspects of the shuttle, the whys and wherefores of its design, what led to different failures in the past in other shuttles . And the fact that the Atlantis was originally meant to be a private vehicle for the U.S. Airforce!
It wasnt hard watching that amazing sight to find yourself dreaming of the stars and the adventures to be had, or to be written about!
It was amazing. It was also poignent....this was never going to happen again. When a ship once again leaves this building for the launch pad, it will never again be the shuttle that we have grown up watching depart this planet for adventures in space.
Good bye Atlantis.
