Yesterday the shuttle launch was really cool even if it was about 41 degrees. Because it was something that I’ve never in my life thought I would see. It was like an explosion of bright light and a soon you would think it was day. The vibrations that it made was awesome it was like you where sitting on a dryer and it was going 20mph. Later on that day we went back to Kennedy space center and saw two really great 3D movies about space and all the astronauts that have been there and all the had and dangerous jobs you have to do.Today we went to an arcade and played laser tag and that was pretty cool even if it did get hot and I was wearing a whit shirt and everybody could see me. The best part of today for me was the tickets because I won two-handed seventy. So that’s pretty much everything that happened these two days and I can’t wait to come home and tell all my family and friends about this.
-Phaidra |
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Shuttle Launch, Part II
Launch, Part II
Early Monday morning (way too early than what should be necessary) the six girls from Girl Scouts Nor Cal witnessed an amazing thing, the successful launch of STS-130 Endeavour. As one of the people who saw this I personally thought it was amazing. The best way I can describe it is fireworks times about 50. The brightness caused by the ignition was as bright as day. I was shocked at how bright it became also how long the noise and brightness lasted. Stephanie got a video of the initial liftoff and it’s ascent off of the launch pad. I didn’t know anything man-made could cause such a breath-taking sight. After some sleep when we got back to the hotel, we went back to the
Today we went to an arcade, because we can’t be too much learn and no play, and played multiple games of laser tag. It was very cool. Never play laser tag with Heather, she’s really sneaky. Now I’m sitting here typing up this blog and Heather may kick me out soon because she wants to sleep. I think I’ll do the same. Thank you for reading!!! And to my family and friends: I’LL BE HOME SOON!!!! I MISS YOU GUYS TOO!!!!!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Launch, Part II
Boy, this whole launch business has gotten me on the weirdest sleep schedule. On Sunday night before the launch I went to sleep around 12, probably, and got up and hour later so we could drive to the launch. At first I was in a bit of a bad mood because I was tired and hungry and especially because I was cold, and on top of that I was worried the shuttle wouldn’t go again, which would be a big disappointment. But I sat it out, listening to my iPod for about 2 hours. One of the best parts was during the last hold, at 9 minutes (it was 45 minutes long. It is so hard to sit there and watch the countdown clock read 9:00 for 45 minutes!) I was stressing they were going to say it was a no go, which is what they did last time. But after the countdown started again (T minus 9 minutes and counting…) I started to get very, very excited. It kinda hit me that the shuttle, three miles away, contained people in it that were really going into outer space. It seemed sort of… surreal? Is that the right word? It’s like I was in a dream, I wasn’t really about to watch this incredible thing happen. Something most people never get to see, I was watching at only 15 years old. The clock got closer and closer to 0, and I got more excited. Everyone was standing in the bleachers, either holding their breath or counting down the seconds to when it would go off. When the rockets started, they lit up the sky. It was like the sun was rising behind the shuttle, and tons and tons of smoke started to billow out around it as the shuttle lifted off. At that moment my mind was blank, utterly blank, just taking in that incredible sight. One thing that struck me was that as it was shooting into the air (not actually going as fast as one might think…) was how crooked its path was. I guess it makes sense now, but it struck me as odd at the time. That was the first thing I really thought. The second thing was “Whoa!” when the sound waves came rippling over everyone. I could feel them more in my chest than in my ears, and it even felt a little harder to breathe. We stood there watching as it soared into the sky (I think we were nearly blinded though, that fire was sooo bright!) and eventually faded into a little dot. But we kept our eyes on that dot until it passed under the horizon, and after that I stood there in shock for a little while. That was one thing I can never properly describe or ever forget.
-Kjersti
Launch, Part II
We all got up very late. We finally got everyone awake and ready to leave at 1:30 pm. We then went out to brunch at this cute little café. The food was very good. After that we stopped of at Publix and stocked up on snacks to eat during the Super Bowl. We returned to our hotel and rested for a few hours. Then we watched the exciting Super Bowl game. I finally learned the rules of football, so the game was much more interesting than it would have been. Once it was finally done at 9:30, we all went to bed to get a few hours sleep before we had to get up again. At 1 am, we woke up and loaded into the buses to go to
- Violet