I didn’t get to see STS-133 launch at the end of October last year. Â I was rather disappointed. Â I have been working in the aerospace industry for 13 years now and all in the Shuttle side even. Â In that time, I had never gone to see a live Shuttle launch in person! Â So when I won the Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award, I was sooo excited!
Then the launch got delayed.  And it got delayed big!  It was December, then January.  And then it had moved to February.  It was on my son’s birthday even!  No matter… I was so determined to see it in person especially since the award involved seeing it as close as one can get!  (Unless you are the president or something!)
So two of my co-workers wanted to see it as well and we drove out to see it. Â 16 hours of driving. Â Each way. Â It was long but totally worth it.
It will be sad to see them all retire… I sure hope NASA and humanity doesn’t let go of the dreams…
You are one of the few alive to have witnessed a launch. Would have been nice to see that myself.
Anyway, not sure about NASA but I think the Russians and the Chinese have not given up on manned space exploration. They might let us even hitch a ride if we are willing to pay the multi-millions.
Peter.
My brother and I were golfing at a course in Daytona Beach that day and saw it briefly.
By the time we got our cameras from the golf cart it was just a spec in the distance.
We did see the rockets belching out fire though before the fires went out. Still very cool.
Hey H! You were in Florida?! Oh well… but yes, it was awesome!
Yes Peter. We were in Florida. I posted about the trip. Had I known you were going to be so close we could have got together…
Dang… so close yet so far… hope it was a great time at the beach area…