T minus 5 and counting

With five days before we launch forth on our epic Journey to the land of the free, prompted by recent news reporting of pictures sent back from a returning International Space Station (ISS) crew aboard their Soviet capsule we recall a visit in 2009 to Florida, it was the best of times it was the worst of times..

We were fortunate enough to be at the Kennedy space centre to witness the deferred night time launch countdown of STS128 Discovery, its 37th flight and the 30th station assembly flight.

Discovery slipped from its launch pad at 23:59 on 28 August 2009 into a clear black night, sadly some 3 days after our visit, during which the launch was scrubbed at the T-9 minute hold mark at 01:25 in the morning, due to rain and lightning at the launch site.

Even with that crushing disappointment, the experience of having attended the launch preparations, having witnessed dolphins playing in the surf immediately in front of the NASA causeway from where we would have witnessed the launch and having seen the Shuttle brilliantly lit on its tower, as the voices of the flight director and his crew where relayed through an open air tannoy to the waiting ensemble remains a tangible joy.

It is then with great sadness we remember this event, whilst we witness the first pictures this week of a space shuttle, Endeavour, docked at the International space station for the final time, with only a single remaining flight for the program, that of Atlantis. In the knowledge, that Endeavour (ironically) on her return to Earth is ultimately destined for display in a Californian science museum.

As we begin our Journey therefore across California, to experience new sights, American life and civilisation we acknowledge those astronauts that have gone boldly before us. They in common with us sought to travel beyond the familiar and common place, to enrich and illuminate their lives, to broaden their horizons, leveraging the technology of the age to experience and wonder at that of creations.

They travel by spacecraft, we by car, their vistas became the stars themselves, ours; alien city streets, towering mountain views, cinematic sunsets and heat washed desert trails.

We will no doubt have shared experiences of wonder and awe, only the locations will be different, their missions recorded for posterity, our journey a more personal memory but through these posts an experience for all to savour.

These are the voyages…

Posted in: Space