On January 16, 2003, I wrote the following on my blog:
“The launch went well. It’s funny; even a casual observer would be able to tell exactly what goes on during a launch if they were walking the hallway during those 8 minutes. At about 2 minutes, there is a collective sigh of relief when the solid rocket boosters jettison. Then a bit after 8 minutes, the silence is broken by a lot of chatter and the halls fill with people leaving the rooms with TVs and heading back to their offices.
Launch days are the most inspiring days to work here.”
Two weeks later, Columbia broke apart.
Today the scene described above repeated itself for the first time in almost 30 months. We all piled into the conference room, crowding around an ancient TV broadcasting the NASA channel and listening to loops originating in the control center just down the hall. As launch got closer and closer, my heart started to pound. With 30 seconds to go, the sound of the blood pounding in my ears was so loud that I was amazed that no one else in the room could hear it.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP went my heart.
TICK, TICK, TICK went the countdown clock.
In a blink, the sound suppression water started cascading beneath the engines. The sparklers lit, burning off any residual gas. The engines started, and the shock diamonds in the exhaust started to glow. “Liftoff!” said the announcer, calm as ever, and the stack began to rise.
THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP went my heart.
SNAP CRACKLE POP ROAR went the space shuttle on the TV screen.
There was dead silence in the conference room as we collectively held our breath. Eight and a half minutes later, many giddy happy faces unable to hold back smiles, a few claps, and a few exclamations of “cool!” at the video of the ET separating from the orbiter.
We are back in space. Most excellent.
I stood with other Disney cast members in the parking lot of one of our office buildings and watched Discovery rise to the heavens from 60 miles away, but it was with our own eyes.
I know launch days are the most inspiring to work at NASA, but they’re also the most inspiring days to be alive!
We’ve got people going to space again!
Wow Sarah- you just took me back to my NASA days. Launch days were by far the best days to be at NASA- such a magical feeling in the air. I watched the launch from my building downtown (the needle-topped one in your photoblog pic of the day btw!) and I honestly felt like crying when the ET separated from Discovery. It felt so good to know we are flying again!