Shuttle Launch

The shuttle launch was so cool! We waited till 2 am to see it but it was worth it! My dad made a friend and he lent us a radio scanner so we could hear every thing going on. We heard them do all the checks and the count down. As soon as the count down reached 1, the sky lit up with fire. I took pictures while my dad video taped it. It was so bright, it could have been daytime! I got to watch some of the launch through my binoculars to, that looked really cool. About 8 seconds after liftoff, the shuttle disappeared into the clouds and it looked like the clouds were on fire! About 15 seconds after lift off the sound finally reached us. This launch was so cool.

Here is our view of the launch. It happend on an island pretty far away. Isn't it bright!

It was still pretty bright after it went in to the clouds.

A few days after the launch, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We are so interested in space! We saw all different sizes of rockets and we got to sit in a replica of what the astronauts sat in when they went to the moon. They have a whole lot of switches to learn about!! There, we saw all the history and the difference between what the rockets looked like compared to the shuttles now. We also got to watch a show of the history of every one that went to the moon. There was another show that we watched that was about the space station, what it looked like, what it looks like and what it is going to look like. We also got to go in a simulated shuttle launch were it actually tipped us vertical. And we got shaken up like they would when astronauts go up into space. After the ride on the way out, we saw all the different space missions all the way from the beginning. There was also a retired astronaut named John Fabian there to do a show. He told us about what it was like to be up in space and the crews he went with. He got to do 2 different missions, both going to the space station. On one of his missions, they brought up a prince with them so he could do some tests in space himself. When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut. I am not sure what I want to do like, engineering or piloting, yet. But when I do it will be amazing!