STS-1

While digging up my Halley's Comet photographs, I came across some even older images. From April 1981.

STS-1. The first launch of the Space Shuttle.

I was a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a friend and fellow student, Scott Parks, had been an intern at NASA the previous summer. And he knew George Low, who was the president of the college and had run the Apollo program for NASA.

And thus, Scott, myself, and Jim Hill, one of my roommates, found ourselves on an air conditioned bus, heading toward the VIP viewing section. (Not the VVIP section, where the famous people were. But good enough for us.)

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We drove down from Troy, NY to Jim's grandparent's place in Florida near the space center, straight through, no stops. And it wasn't until the Carolina's that we learned that Jim didn't have a drivers license (Scott got the VIP passes, I had a car, and Jim had a place for us to stay). We were skipping school and not having a third driver was problematic. Especially for the trip home.

The shot above was from two days prior to the actual launch, as the launch was delayed. Computer issues if I recall correctly. This too was problematic as we had to get back to school for a test (we were all physics majors and had the same test for the same class). We were getting worried that we would have to leave before the launch, and that our trip would be for naught.

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We rode that bus out to the viewing site three times. And as they say, third time is the charm.

Ignition (bigafy to see the flames under Columbia).

Liftoff (no need to bigafy to see the flames now).

Thanks to the notch cut in the trees we could see the launch from the start. And shortly thereafter we heard it. It was loud. Very loud.

But we expected that.

What we didn't expect was that we FELT it. A rumbling that shook ones being. Quite awesome.

And then there was the cheering as the Shuttle program was finally off the ground. 

And while the Shuttle program would not live up to the promise, and suffer multiple tragedies, that was in the future.

Today was for celebration.

And celebrate we did as we watched as Columbia had near flawless liftoff into orbit.

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We made it back in time for our exam, Scott and I alternating driving duties and trying to sleep as we drove through the night. I do not remember how I did (driving, sleeping, or on the test). But as I graduated with a BS in Physics I must have done ok. And I got to see the first shuttle launch.

I had always hoped to get back for another launch, but that is yet to be (and, of course, would be for something other than a shuttle). I did make it back to Kennedy Space Center, and to the Space Shuttle exhibit. It was a fun visit. But not the same.

I'm still hoping that someday I'll experience that rumbling again.

The Rockets Red Glare

Wasn't visible because of the clouds.

On November 17th an Antares rocket was launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. And if the conditions were right it would be visible from my neck of the woods.

Conditions were not right.

So all I got to see was orange light pollution reflecting off the clouds. Very disappointing.

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The launch was successful. Supplies are on the way to the International Space Station. It's a good thing.

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The launch was at 4:01 am, so I set my alarm for 3:30 and woke up at 2:30 (grrrr). I had loaded my optical equipment in the car the evening before. So I got up. Got dressed. And headed out. My observing site was a half mile away. As I started out to my car I looked up. No stars. Not good. But if the clouds were high enough I could still see it. And it might look cool as it went through the clouds. So I decided to go.

The clouds were not high enough. I did not see the rocket. So I went home. Parked the car. Went inside. Got undressed. And went back to bed. Couldn't fall back asleep (grrrr).

Maybe next time.

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If you look at the image above, the clouds are lit from underneath. That means light from the ground is aimed up. I can't think of any good reason why anyone would need to illuminate the clouds. That is just wasted energy. Some of the reason is poor lighting design. Some is ignorance. Some is the false sense that light equals security (spoiler, it doesn't!). Light pollution isn't just the bane of astronomers. It has real consequences in human health among other things (it's not good for wildlife).

This can all be fixed. The International Dark Sky Association is working to fix it. I'm a member and they deserve your support. 

Truckin'

The last place I visited on my tour of Kennedy Space Center was the new Atlantis exhibit.

The entrance is marked by the solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank.

Which were, to me anyways, surprisingly large.

Like with the Apollo/Saturn V museum, the Atlantis pavilion entrance leads the visitor through a pair of  theaters, which tell the story of the development of the  space shuttle, cost overruns, delays, and all.

From the initial paper plane model.

To the real deal, the actual Atlantis spacecraft.

Which is revealed as the screen in the last theater becomes transparent. A rather large spacecraft coming straight at you. It is a very well done effect. The screen then rises and you walk into the grand hall housing the spacecraft.

I lingered waiting for the (sparse) crowd to clear so I could get the shot I wanted. I made it out with just seconds to spare.

It was fun to see the ship like this, up close and personal as the cliche goes.

Here's a shot of the famous heat tiles.

And one of the cargo bay, highlighting the Canadian robotic arm.

The only way it could have been better is if they let you climb inside. Alas, you'll just have to imagine me waving from the window.

The shuttle was supposed to be NASA's space truck, making flight after flight with quick turn arounds between each. It didn't work out that way. The system was just too fragile, requiring significant work to get ready for the next flight. And two of the shuttles suffered catastrophic failures, Challenger and Columbia, killing all onboard. And of course, for most of the program there was nowhere to truck stuff to until the International Space Station was assembled. And unmanned throw away boosters could lift stuff to Earth orbit cheeper.

A flawed machine with no real mission. But still the first reusable spacecraft. And a model for the craft being build by private companies today. Perhaps all is not lost for my childhood dreams.

We Choose to go to the Moon

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” ― John F. Kennedy

As noted in my prior post, while visiting Kennedy Space Center  (KSC) I took the Mega Tour. And this tour, like all of the others, ends at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

When I had visited KSC in the early 1980's, there was a Saturn V rocket lying on its side outside what was then the visitor center, slowly weathering away. Now that rocket is housed in it's own museum, the afore mentioned Apollo/Saturn V Center.

As you might imagine, it takes a large building to house a large rocket. The rocket is mounted in sections above you. And as you can see I was fortunate to be there on a light day, so I had no crowds to contend with. Very nice.

Before you get to the rocket you are led through two small theaters, showing historical footage related to the space program and to the tenor of the times, the rather tumultuous sixties. This prelude ends in a rebuilt mission control, using the original consoles, with the countdown to the launch of Apollo 11.

And then it is off to the rocket.

You begin at the business end of a machine built to go to the moon.

And work your way forward stage by stage.

Some of the stages are left over components from flights canceled because we needed to spend our money on more important things, like killing people in Vietnam (sadly not too different from today).

Other parts are models, built for training or even for this museum.

And some, like this Apollo 14 capsule, are the real deal.

While the one hanging overhead was a model.

My favorite spacecraft was easily the Lunar Module. It just seemed so un-spaceship like. And that appealed to me. It was different.

And of course I so much wanted to ride on the Lunar Rover.

The Apollo project was the stuff of my dreams as a kid. And it was very cool to revisit those dreams for a day. On this coming Wednesday, 11/20/2013, it will be fifty years since the president who started us on the path to the moon, and for whom the space center is named, was assassinated. Did he too dream of the moon? Or was it all just politics? 

What would he make of the fact that the United States, the nation that made the man on the moon a reality, has no capability to launch a man into space?

I trust he would find that very sad and disappointing. Just as I do.

Rockets

I recently had a business trip to Florida where I was forced to spend three days at Disney World (woe is me). The conference ended on Friday but I planned ahead and spent the weekend in Florida. And on Sunday I visited Kennedy Space Center.

Upon entering the visitor center complex, from the parking lot, the first thing to catch your eye is the Rocket Garden.

Even the name is cool, Rocket Garden. I so want a rocket garden in my yard!

Before you can get to the garden you need to pay. And it ain't cheap. Tickets to the complex are $50. On top of the $10 to park. And while a ticket gets you the standard bus tour, if you want to visit the VAB or Launch Complex 39A or Mission Control or have lunch with an astronaut, well then you need to pay more. I signed up for the Mega Tour, which in addition to the standard tour got me to the VAB and Launch Pad 39A.

But after you buy your ticket you go through the turnstiles and the Rocket Garden is right there before you.

Real live rockets!

Like this Mercury Redstone, the first US manned space ship.

I was nine days shy of nine years old when the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon. And nothing could pull me away form the TV when there was a launch. I couldn't wait for the "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... Liftoff!" of each mission.

I didn't understand or even know about the politics of the space race. I knew there was a race, and it was US against the USSR.

I just liked the rockets!

Like this Mercury Atlas, the second configuration of the Mercury program, and the rocket that took John Glen into orbit.

The Russians had the lead through most of the early sixties. Their space program shrouded in secrecy, with little known, at least to this then eight year old boy, about their spaceships.

But rockets were rockets!

And I liked them all. Including this Gemini Titan, the first US spaceship that could carry two astronauts at a time. It was this ship that would see the space race lead change hands from the USSR to the US, as its flights included space walks and multi-spacecraft rendezvous.

The largest of the rockets in the garden is lying on its side.

It is the little brother to the moon rocket!

The Saturn 1B. The rocket on display was the backup rocket for the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions, on call should something go wrong up there. A rescue rocket. Never used, it now rests, the penultimate rocket in our quest for the moon.

The Saturn V moon rocket is too large for the Rocket Garden, and has a museum all its own at the Space Center.

But there are teasers in the Rocket Garden.

Like this single engine from the Saturn V's first stage. Larger then the space capsules a top of the rockets in the garden.

There are other rockets in the garden. Unmanned workhorses used to launch space probes and satellites up from Earth into our little corner of the universe. But it was the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo rockets that captured my imagination as a kid. And again as a visitor to Kennedy Space Center a couple of weekends ago.

There be Rockets here!

Rocket Man

Driving home from Nova Scotia we quite by accident wound up spending the night in Auburn Massachusetts. And when we left the hotel the next morning we checked the Roadside America app to see if there were any places of interest.

There was. A small park, built by the local Rotary Club and maintained by the town. It is immediately adjacent to the town fire department and shares a parking lot.

It is the Robert H. Goddard Park.

Dr. Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rockets from a nearby site (now a golf course) and the park has a life sized replica of this historical rocket.

From such modest beginnings can we trace the pedigree of the giant Saturn V that took humans to the moon. It was Goddard who first wrote about moon flights in a 1920 paper, which prompted the NY Times to write in an editorial:

That Professor Goddard, with his "chair" in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action and reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react - to say that would be absurd. Of course he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.  (Wikipedia)

Showing that the inability of the press to report on scientific subjects is not a new phenomena. To its credit, the times did publish a retraction in 1969, when Apollo 11 did make it to the moon. Of course rockets, manned and unmanned, had been traveling in the vacuum of space for years by then.

The park also has a much larger Polaris missile on display.

I've not been able to find any connection between Goddard and the Polaris missile, other than it being a rocket. But it was cool to see and rather obvious from the road, making the park easy to find. And it was a cool way to start the last day of our trip.