Shuttle Launch

Watching a shuttle launch is on my 100 things to do list. I have been on the Nasa email list for about a year. The email list informs you of launches and special events at Nasa.

I have attempted to buy tickets for launches before, but they were sold out. I was able to get tickets for shuttle launch STS-123. STS-123 was a night launch on March 12, 2008 at 2:28 in the morning. My flight to Orlando was a late flight and was really getting me into Orlando to late. I got up early Monday morning and did stand-by until I got on a earlier flight to Orlando. Didnt take to long, as I got on the second flight of the day to Orlando. After getting to Orlando, the car rental place decided that I didn't have a reservation. I forgot the print out at work :( The car rental place was out of cars. ( Spring break was starting that week. ) They suggested the car rental place next door. L&M, they had one car left. I took it!
I checked into my hotel, and then drove to the Space Center. Took about an hour to get to the Space Center. I hit the shops for a souvenir shirt. Second stop was the 3-D Imax movie. Next was the space shuttle display and shuttle launch simulation. Movie and simulation were both fun.
I got lucky on supper. The cafeteria was already closed, and I was at the end of a very long line for a hot dog stand, when an employee informed us they were opening up a restaurant. Ran over was able to get some food.

After supper, I headed over to the Rocket Garden to find a spot to watch the lift off. Nasa has a big screen tv, bleachers and chairs set up in the Rocket Garden to watch lift offs. I found a spot on bleachers. I sat near a dad and his daughter and another guy and his father in-law. We sat around for the next 8 hours, watched Nasa videos and swamped some stories. As it got to close to launch, there was probably a couple of thousand people in the Rocket Garden.
They also had a guy come out on the little stage, they had set up, and let us know what was going on. He described what we would expect to see. The shuttle would take off and we would be able to see if a couple of seconds later. From where we were sitting it was behind a tree line. As the shuttle climbed higher in the sky, it would like the sky up like day time, turn the sky blue and would be able to see the clouds. Sounded really cool.

Count down 5,4,3,2,1 lift-off. We could see the glow behind the trees, climbing higher and then it disappeared into the clouds that had built up after it got dark. So we didnt get to see a spectacular launch. I was bumbed, but I am still glad I went. May have to have a do-over though. The last scheduled shuttle launch is sometime in 2010.