Field Journal

The launch from Banana Creek!

At T - minus 32 minutes and 15 seconds (meaning 32 minutes and 15 seconds on the count down clock) I take my seat in the bleachers. The sun is hot yet the sky is cloudy and there is a cool breeze that makes the sun bearable. I have butterflies in my stomach thinking about how the astronauts must feel right now. People around me are talkative. Family members of the astronauts (the people with the yellow buttons rather than the green one I possess) seem anxious with anticipation for their loved ones but also seem calm and unworried. I wonder if I was in their place if I'd feel the same. I'm reminded that space exploration is an international event as I watch a Swedish couple take a seat in front of me and hear two men to my right speak intensely in Japanese.

T - minus 20 minutes and 30 seconds. The shuttle hasn't taken off yet, but it has already been an eventful day. The buses picked us up at 11:00am and brought us here to Banana Creek where the countdown clocks read over 3 hours until departure. Near the viewing site there is a large building called the Apollo/Saturn V Center. There I spent most of my morning examining the Saturn V (the huge rocket responsible for Apollo 11's trip to the moon) replica and reading about each Apollo mission.

T - minus 20 and holding? The clock has stopped at 20 minutes. I don't understand. A plane flys overhead. This is confusing because the airways are supposed to be closed. It must be for the shuttle I think to myself.

10 minutes later the countdown is resumed. I look up at the sky. What happens after take off? Will the shuttle seam to dissappear suddenly as it leaves the earth's atmosphere or does it simply appear smaller and smaller until we can't see it anymore?

I see a helicopter fly by the site. The bleachers are filling up. Another green helocopter flys over us as the countdown clock reads 9:36.

"T - minus 9 minutes and holding for 10 minutes" the loud speeker announces. They are checking to see if the Neurolab is ready to fly.

I am awed at the display before me as I view from the bleachers. A large body of water separates us from the launch site. The delicacy of nature represented by the wildlife in the water contrasted with the most powerful man-made object in the background astonishes me and overwhelms me.

We hear the speaker switch to mission control in Houston. "We'll see you in 16 days," someone says to the astronauts. Things must be checking out okay I think to myself. The crowd cheers as the countdown clock starts again at 9 minutes and counting!

The speaker announces: they are preparing the engines at T - minus 300 (3 minutes). The oxygen system is being pressurized. There's no turning back now. All I can feel are butterflies in my stomach as I put my pen down and stand up and prepare to witness this spectacular display.