While Adam was in Florida for his work conference, NASA had a planned Space Shuttle mission scheduled to launch. The only question was, would it go on schedule? The orbiter Endeavour, which is named after Captain Cook's boat that discovered the east coast of Australia, was scheduled to launch as STS-118 (the 119th Space Shuttle mission) on 8th August at around 6:30pm Florida time.

Space Shuttle Information

The Space Shuttle is actually made up of three major components: the orbiter (the main part everyone thinks of), the solid rocket boosters (two white rockets on either side of the shuttle) and the external fuel tank (provides the orbiter's main engines with fuel for the launch). Both the solid rocket boosters and orbiter are re-used but the external tank burns up in the atmosphere after separation.

At liftoff it can weigh up to 4.5 million pounds but once moving and up in space will travel upwards of 17,000 miles per hour.

The two solid rocket boosters provide 5.3 million pounds of thrust combined.

The orbiter's main engines provide about 400,000 pounds of thrust and are used for the first eight minutes of flight.

The Launch

Thankfully the launch was scheduled for 6:36pm, which gave everyone enough time to finish up at the conference and head out to the coast to find a good vantage spot. I think most other people in Florida had a similar idea because the roads were heavy with traffic.

People just pulled over where ever they could find a spot and where ever they thought would give them a good view.

Thankfully everything went as scheduled, the potential bad weather stayed away and the space shuttle launch went as advertised, taking the Endeavour to the International Space Station. We were possibly 10 - 15 miles from the launch site but the rumble and roar of the launch was still very impressive. Seeing that launch is certainly something I will never forget.

Pictures of the launch from the NASA website

Through the heat haze only the flames from the solid rocket boosters were visible					Just as the solid rocket boosters flame out - the shuttle trajectory takes it on a parabolic flight path

The traffic after the launch was horrendous, so instead we headed to Cocoa Beach for dinner and to wait out the madness. It was a good option because it was still clearing closer to Orland when we got back there at 11pm.

 

The Landing

Just over 12 days later and after traveling some 5.3 million miles, the shuttle returned to earth after very successful mission. Unfortunately we were back in DC when this happened but maybe next time we'll be down there at a time to catch a landing.