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STS-132, The Final Flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis

By miranda | May 15, 2010

Big breath in, big breath out.  The past three days have been a whirlwind of activity, non-stop inertia that carried us through to the launch and beyond.  So many firsts (and lasts) have been crammed into the past 65 or so hours that it is hard to sum up.  It was our first flight with two children (two flights, I suppose, with the connections), and we couldn’t even sit together because we both had infants in laps and the airplane only has one extra oxygen mask per row.  Our seat-mates for the first leg of the journey largely ignored us and seemed to be trying to pretend they were somewhere else, but on the second leg we both ended up beside amicable persons willing to interact, which was nice.  I was seated with a gentleman who grew up in Kissimmee (where we’re staying) and another gentleman from Edmonton who was coming to Orlando for the same reason we were.  I asked Todd (from Kissimmee) for good restaurant suggestions and Kevin (from Edmonton) and I discussed the experience of trying to secure tickets for the launch viewing.  Harry was seated beside a young man with a lap top who was willing to check the hockey scores for him (wi-fi on planes now!) (go habs, go!) and an older lady who was very understanding about sitting beside an energetic almost-two-year-old.  If it weren’t for the fact that due to many delays at each leg of the trip from Minneapolis on we only finally gained access to our hotel room at 3:30am I could have said it was a pretty good day.  In the end, it was a long day… longer even than expected.

Our “cushion” day was spent getting a couple of basic supplies to stock our kitchen and doing a trial run out to the Kennedy Space Center, then we visited Chris and Char at their villa for a nice BBQ supper.  We retired early as we had an early arrival time at the KSC and we were hoping to get some sleep before making the trek out there.  Thankfully our trip the next morning (starting at 5am) went smoothly and we arrived without incident.  We staked out what we hoped was a good viewing spot for ourselves and C&C, who were scheduled to arrive later in the day.  My stress about getting there safely and on time was over with, but unfortunately for C&C, theirs was not.  They hit heavy traffic on the last leg of their journey and sat in traffic for almost two hours fretting that they would not make it.  As we were in contact via text messaging, I was sick to my stomach for them, and was overjoyed when I got a message saying that they had made it after all.

What can I say… I witnessed history yesterday.  A one-of-a-kind space program being shut down for good.  I grew up wanting to be an astronaut.  I remember watching launches on TV and aching to be in those seats with them, shooting for the stars.  All day long, there was always the possibility that the launch might be delayed, so I didn’t let myself believe it until we started the final 10 second countdown, and watched the engines ignite.  Sure, we weren’t close (7 miles away) and probably would have had a closer shot if we’d viewed it on TV, but there is something in the fact of BEING there.  Not seeing it through a camera lens (well, I did take pictures, but… you know).  BEING there!  Hearing and feeling the rumble of the shock-wave from the takeoff several seconds after witnessing the event.  Seeing that small, man-made tin can propelled away from the earth at amazing speeds (the phrase that comes to mind comes from my brother, though I know not it’s original origin:  “Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth”).  Twin tears rolled down my cheeks as I tried to catch my breath.

There is so much more to say, but it can wait.  And, thanks to the wonder of Google, here is the source of the above quote:

High Flight
John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Godspeed, Atlantis.  And goodnight.

Topics: Travel | 1 Comment »

One Response to “STS-132, The Final Flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis”

  1. moi Says:
    May 16th, 2010 at 6:16 am

    I was wondering how the flight was, sounds like basically OK. I’m so glad all of you got to do this.

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