All systems go!

You may recall from a post a few weeks ago, we were close, but "no cigar" when it came to the final launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor.

Well, today was the day the launch had been rescheduled!  We were pretty excited about the launch itself, but not so much the start time (8:56:28AM).

Once the new day and time were announced, we were able to secure a hotel room in Viera (just south of Cape Canaveral) for Sunday night.  "But why would you need a hotel?", you ask.  Because our instructions that went along with our Congressional Invitation stated we needed to be in Merritt Island by 5:00AM.  (Which meant we wanted to be there by 4:30AM.)  And because we didn't want to run any risk of being late due to traffic or weather, we thought it would be prudent to be 20 minutes away from the meeting spot.  And working backwards, that meant we needed to be up by 3:00ish.  It was early bed-time, for sure!

Of course the hotel wouldn't have breakfast that early but Frank did some preliminary research and found a Dunkin Donuts that was open 24 hours, right down the road from meeting spot.  Perfect!

We hit the road and headed north.  Traffic was great and we found the DD sign with ease.  Turns out it was part of a gas station/convenience store and when we went to the door it was locked and no one in sight!  Not to worry, Frank remembered there was a Steak n Shake across from the mall so we headed there.  They were open, but weren't serving breakfast until 6:00.  Ugh!! Really, all we wanted was a cup of coffee and a bagel! 

We back-tracked a few blocks to find Burger King was open.  Ahhhhh!  Coffee and a breakfast sandwich and we were in business.

Because of the ungodly hour people had to be at the meeting spot, we didn't think there would be too many people.  Thankfully we got there early and secured a place not too far from the front of the line.  We were on Bus 1 this time!

It was still pretty dark for the ride to Kennedy Space Center.  But by the time we arrived, there were already many buses and many people already set up on the Causeway.

The white structure beyond the island is the Space Shuttle.

We had over 2 hours before the launch.  So we did a little people watching, reading and watching the sunrise.

 We had "front row seats" (albeit the island blocking shuttle), without any people in our way.  We set up our chairs and settled in for the wait.

Vehicle Assembly Building

All along the causeway, there were plenty of tents with food, port-a-potties and space for the half-a-million people to hang out.  In addition, there were loud speakers every hundred yards over which we hear the "Voice" from Mission Control, the astronauts in the shuttle and the NASA folks in Houston going through all their checks, the various count-downs and holds. 

Finally, the moment (literally) we had been waiting for........

Five, four, three, two, one!  "We have lift off of the Space Shuttle Endeavour!"

During the initial seconds, we could hear the sounds of the Endeavour taking off.  But then, we could feel the thunderous rumble of the massive engines/rockets pushing the shuttle into the sky and ultimately into space.

Unfortunately, the cloud cover was right over launch pad and we weren't able to see the shuttle once it entered the sky. 

We each had our hands full with trying to capture the moment; Frank with Flip and his phone, me with camera and my phone.  But between all our electronics were able to get a pretty good video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCv2OXzmet0 

(Be sure to turn your speakers on.)

What an amazing event to witness!  It boggles the mind that people travel to/from, live and work in outerspace!