I always wanted to witness a Space Shuttle launch and finally did so on the very last one. I was at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex. We left Daytona Beach a little after 5 a.m. to get to the Complex before our assigned time of 7 a.m. for an 11:30 a.m. launch. The weather was looking pretty iffy but managed to clear up enough for the launch.
Launch was exciting with the last minute hold at 31 seconds, the large crowds and knowing it was the last launch. The sound wasn’t quite as impressive as I thought it would be but we were 7 miles away after all.
I seem to be somewhat ambivalent about the end of the Space Shuttle era. It is pretty old. A 30 year old system probably is ready to be retired. I can’t help feeling, though, that we’re going backwards in terms of technology returning to non-reusable rockets. The Shuttle has reached the end of it’s life and never lived up to the promise of low cost to orbit, but it seems like we should be building on it and not returning to Apollo days. I also worry about the brain drain with all the folks leaving NASA.
My hope is that the new crop of commercial launchers such as Space X will truly open space up for even more use, and that NASA will be free to persue real exploratory projects. With the 42nd anniversary of man landing on the Moon today it does sometimes feel like we’ve lost our spirit of exploration.
Here is some audio I recorded from the launch of STS-135:
http://www.stellarfire.net/spaceshuttle.html
