Scrubbed

June 15, 2009

Space Shuttle Endeavour



Scrubbed



Nothing is definite in life and that certainly applies to Space Shuttle launches. At around 1 AM, we were awakened in our hotel by a text message from our friends who were over at Kennedy Space Center who let us know that the launch of the shuttle was being scrubbed due to a hydrogen leak that was discovered during the final fueling in preparation for take-off. While that meant that I could cancel our 3 AM wake-up call, it also meant that we were going to miss the primary purpose for our visit.





The shuttle, Endeavour, mission STS-127, was to have launched the 500th person to travel into space among its 7 person crew. When it does eventually take off, it will visit the International Space Station, where it will deliver a crew member and return another to Earth. There are also 5 space-walks planned for the mission and it will also deliver the Kibo Japanese experiment to the station. If we cannot make it back for this launch, we plan to return for one of the other final 8 shuttle missions.

Saturn V rocket

Moon Rover

We had hoped to visit the Cape Canaveral National Seashore or even the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, but both being on NASA property; they were closed on shuttle launch day. So we decided to take a quick look around downtown Titusville and then head over to check out the Kennedy Space Center, which ironically, was open and going strong. I figured the place would be overrun with disappointed shuttle watchers, but the crowd wasn’t too bad at all.





The place is pretty cool; they have an awesome bus trip that takes you around to see various locations including the former Apollo command center which houses the original command center as well as the last Saturn V rocket and other relics of the Apollo program. They had the astronaut bus and even a moon rover on display and it was very interesting.





After the bus tour, we were back at the main visitor center where there is a ton of rockets and other space related stuff to check out; there is even an old Space Shuttle that you can tour. It was a very impressive display. They even had a moving memorial to those astronauts who were killed in service to the space program. Seeing the space center helped relieve our disappointment at missing the launch.



Sputnik

With the shuttle program winding down, NASA is busying preparing the next set of missions, a planned upon return to the moon with the Constellation project. We were able to see a preview of this project, which is well under way.



Space Shuttle Endeavour

Kennedy Space Center