Hi! I'm Andrew and I'm 10. I have wanted to see a space shuttle launch since I was 6. This summer we FINALLY went! Me, my mom, my dad and my sister Alyssa (she is 7) drove all the way from Georgia to Florida to see Columbia go up. It took 3 tries and 4 nights but we did it. Here is the whole story.

MONDAY: GETTING THERE
We left Monday morning and drove all day. We stayed at a motel in Titusville, which is the town right across the river from the Space Center. It had a pool. The launch was supposed to be at 12:36 in the morning, so that night we got our lawn chairs and the cooler and the radio and the bug spray and went down to the river with about a million other people. You can see the launch pad from there, but it is really far away, like a little light on the other side of the water.

SCRUB!!!
(Tuesday, July 20, 12:36 a.m.)
We listened to the countdown on the radio. 10 minutes... 5 minutes... 1 minute... 30 seconds... and then at 7 SECONDS it STOPPED. SEVEN SECONDS!!! Everybody on the whole river went "awwwww." The man on the radio said a sensor said there was too much hydrogen in the back of the shuttle. It turned out to be OK but they don't take chances. They called it off and we went back to the motel at 2:30 in the morning. Alyssa was asleep in her chair and Dad carried her to the van.

TUESDAY: THE BUS TOUR
We slept late and then went to the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex. You get on a bus and it takes you all around the Space Center. My favorite part was the building with the SATURN V in it. It is a real one, lying on its side, and it is SO big. It is 363 feet long, which is longer than a football field. That's me and Alyssa under the engines. There are 5 of them on the bottom, and they are taller than my dad. The Saturn V is what took the astronauts to the moon.

Me (pointing) and Alyssa under the Saturn V

From the bus we could see Columbia on its launch pad! It was really far away across the marsh but you can see the orange tank and the two white boosters standing up next to the tower. My dad took this through the bus window. There was a white bird standing in the water and the bus driver said it was an egret, and he said there are alligators too, but we didn't see any.

Columbia on the pad (the little thing in the middle!)

WEDNESDAY
We slept late again and went swimming in the motel pool and I bought a toy space shuttle at the gift shop with my own money ($6.99). That night we went back to the river.

SCRUB AGAIN!!!
(Thursday, July 22, after midnight)
This time it was the weather. There were thunderstorms and lightning, and they won't launch if there is lightning close by. We could see the lightning flashing in the clouds. They called it off and we packed up the chairs again. I was so mad I didn't talk the whole way back to the motel.

THURSDAY: LAST CHANCE
My dad had to be back at work on Monday, so this was our last try. We went down to the river early and got a good spot right at the edge of the water. That's my mom and Alyssa (standing on her chair, she's not supposed to do that) and me with Dad's binoculars. The sun went down and the sky got all orange and purple and everybody was waiting.

Waiting on the riverbank, Thursday night

LIFTOFF!!!
(Friday, July 23, 12:31 a.m.)
The countdown went down and down and down and nobody said anything and then the man on the radio said "liftoff" and the WHOLE SKY TURNED ORANGE. It was like the sun came up in the middle of the night. You could see the water and everybody's faces. Columbia went up on a big bright fire and climbed and climbed and it didn't make any sound at all! Then about a minute later the sound got to us across the river. It was a crackly rumbly roar that you could feel in your stomach. After about 2 minutes the boosters fell off and you could see them, two little sparks. Then it was just a star going away, and then it was gone.

Everybody on the whole river was clapping and cheering. Alyssa was jumping up and down on her lawn chair yelling GO GO GO. My mom cried a little bit. My dad just said "wow" about fifty times.

LIFTOFF!!! (My dad's hands were shaking.)

IT WAS THE BEST THING I EVER SAW!!!

Then it took FOREVER to get out of there because everybody left at the same time. We got back to the motel at almost 4 in the morning. On Friday afternoon we drove home, and there was traffic again, and I fell asleep in the van holding my shuttle. My mom took this picture. I don't remember it.

Mission accomplished

My dad read in the paper that there was a problem with some wires on Columbia during the launch, so now they are checking the wires on all the shuttles before the next one goes. When they fix it I want to go again. Next time I want to see a DAY launch so I can see the smoke.

VISITORS SINCE LIFTOFF:

E-mail me if you saw a launch too!
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Last updated Saturday, September 18, 1999