Here’s one:
In April of 2011, Vanessa and I had been dating for almost a year. Little by little I was revealing more of my nerd side: I am a space junkie. Not as in ‘more room for stuff’…more like ‘outer’. The heavens. Stars, planets and everything NASA.
Both of us were teaching, and had the last week of April off for spring recess. I noticed that the 2nd to last space shuttle flight was set to launch in Florida during that week. The shuttle flights began in 1981 and was to end in the summer of 2011 after 135 missions to low earth orbit, the launch of all kinds of satellites and being used as the main construction vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS).
Readers of a certain age will remember that 5 orbiters were built: Columbia, Discovery, Challenger, Atlantis and Endeavor. Sadly, Challenger and Columbia were lost due to catastrophic accidents, and with the ISS built and functioning, NASA chose 2011 as the right time to decommission the 3 remaining orbiters after their final trips to space. The end of April was to be the last 2 week trip of Atlantis.
I told Vanessa that witnessing a live launch had been on my bucket list since I was a kid. We made plans pretty last minute and learned that staying at a smaller resort in Orlando, if you didn’t involve the Mouse, was not that expensive. We decided to fly down, and rent a car for the one hour drive east to Titusville, which the internet told me was a great place for the public to view a launch; 5 miles away (as close as NASA lets non-vip’s get), an open park, with ample parking as long as you were at least 6 hours early to lift-off. The joke went like this: “Watching a shuttle launch is the longest tailgate party for the shortest game. Six to eight hours of hanging out with binoculars, and then the earth rumbles, there is a lot of bright light and smoke and in 90 seconds, the rocket is gone.”
I wanted to feel the ground shake. I wanted to view, with my own eyes, something that I had seen on TV and Youtube. Thankfully the weather looked good and Vanessa was down for this adventure. I booked flights, a few days at some resort that I can’t recall (but it had a great pool, and, as we later discovered….cockroaches). Oops.
On the flight down, I was reading and researching what goes into preparing the space shuttle for a launch. I was fascinated and wanted to be able to tell what all of the hold counts are for that come prior to 3-2-1 Lift-off! I told you….I’m a nerd.
As we began our initial descent into Orlando International Airport, I began chatting up a flight attendant as Vanessa zoned out. She asked if we were married (no). She asked if we were going to Disney (no). She asked about my condition (muscular dystrophy with a smattering of a mouth opening before my mind thinks about what’s coming out).
I told her that we were going to view a shuttle launch, and these were last minute plans and yada, yada, yada…she asks me what we like to drink. I’m thinking it’s way too late on this flight AND we are in coach so $$$. Without thinking (see note above) I say ‘I dunno….Bacardi?’ She taps my shoulder and goes away only to return a few moments later with a plastic bag that’s rattling with nip bottles in it. Suddenly Vanessa is paying attention and asks me what the hell I am up to now…..
The flight attendant says that Vanessa and I are a lovely story, and there are 13 nips of Bacardi left on the flight, and screw the airline (American) and ‘here, take ’em all, so you can drink all weekend.’
Cool. That’s never happened before, but after picking up the rental car we went to CVS and bought a bunch of Diet Coke bottles….
We spent the weekend in the sun, eating good food and checking out what is NOT Disney in Orlando. Before we knew it, launch day was upon us!
The launch of Atlantis was scheduled for noon and so we got on the road a bit after 6AM. It took us a bit more than an hour to get to Titusville and find this big park where people gathered to watch. We didn’t have to look hard. Five hours before launch and there were already hundreds of space nerds there. People with families, couples, old and young and from many different countries. It was wild and it looked like an outdoor market as there were also people at tables selling launch swag, posters, schematics of the shuttle, old mission patches and all kinds of stuff. I especially enjoyed chatting with a guy who had a shortwave radio set up so he could hear Mission Control broadcasting updates in the launch count. He told me that NASA had a public sound system in the park, but they only broadcast starting T-30 minutes before the launch. Cool.
The morning dragged by, Vanessa and I spoke with a ton of people and many were hanging with coolers of beer, snacks and sandwiches. We realized that we should have brought our Bacardi mixers and some protein bars….rookie mistake.
Fast forward to an hour before launch and there was no space at the park. Thousands of us were jammed in, people were setting up professional camera gear, along with binocular stands, etc. This really was a huge tailgate party. When a food truck from Panda Express rolled in, Vanessa and I melted and thought we were in heaven. I saved our lawn spot while she grabbed some grub. Mission Control had informed us, through large pole mounted speakers, that there was an unexpected hold in the launch countdown due to a faulty sensor in one of the solid rocket boosters. Engineers were checking things and all other systems were GO for launch.
A rumor circulated that President Obama was at Kennedy Space Center and would be viewing the launch. Wi-fi in 2011 wasn’t a thing in public parks yet, so news passed person to person like in the old days. There was palpable excitement in the air, and in the distance, through 5 miles of Florida humidity, we could see the shuttle on the launch pad. It looked like a speck in the distance but my binoculars made it better. I didn’t care. It was so cool to be here in this charged nerd environment with all these people.
Vanessa saw it first. About 10 feet in front of us, slightly to the right, an older Asian man dressed in white pants and a white shirt, was sitting next to his wife on a pink blanket. As he began to stand, Vanessa let out a strange noise and poked me in the arm. Quietly she told me to look at the man. He had totally and completely shit his pants. His rear end was brown and believe me when I say…..there was no doubt. There were also no port-o-potty’s in sight. No more Panda Express for this dude. AND as I type this, I can see the dude (and his pants) as if it was yesterday. He hit blast off before NASA did. WHO-WA. DAMN bro. I didn’t have that on my bingo card. Poor guy. He stood there while his wife tried to wrap the pink blanket around his hips.
Where was I? Titusville, warm, humid, almost noon, a few thousand people, I am munching on an egg roll while Mr. Poopy Pants is standing by. Oh right….Space Shuttle Atlantis.
When the countdown reaches T-9 minutes, there is another scheduled hold. It was during this hold that the NASA speakers let us know that the sensor in the sold rocket booster had not been resolved. Just like that, we were told that the launch would be scrubbed for the day. It would be rescheduled as soon as the engineers could figure out what was up. The crew would be unloaded from the rocket and all of the fuel would have to be drained. It never occurred to us that delays and scrubs like this happen all the time. Of course, when watching on TV, it didn’t matter. Sitting there live in the park was a bit different. I was bummed.
Hoping to salvage a bit of the afternoon, I suggested that we waited around for traffic to thin and then drive out to Kennedy Space Center. With a shuttle on the launch pad, the public is not allowed to go that far, but there are all kinds of other things to see and do, and Vanessa had never been there so she was game. BUT, someone overheard us talking and reminded us that NO ONE was going to Kennedy Space Center until President Obama left, which would be a few hours. We waited, since we had little else to do and there were people all over the place.
This time I saw it first. Through the crowd, a man holding a news microphone. Another man holding a large camera on his shoulder and a third guy with some portable lights. A NEWSCAST. A Florida station. Was this live? Did I care? Pat Moeschen? Camera, lights, microphone, TV? WOOOOO.
Vanessa laughed. I approached and kindly asked the reporter if this was a live shot. He told me that they were interviewing people about the scrubbed launch and that the piece would be on the 6’o’clock broadcast that evening. Licking my chops, I told him that my disabled ass had flown all the way from New Hampshire to view a launch as a bucket list item.
I got an interview. I spoke about how exciting it was to be there even though the shuttle didn’t fly that day. I did not mention my shitty Asian friend. Panda Express could have earned a shout out but they didn’t give me anything out of the ordinary, so screw them too. Haha.
At the time, I had an aunt and uncle vacationing near Orlando. I called them and told them to watch the news that night….WOOOO.
Later, Vanessa and I watched it in the hotel room. A few old friends who were living near Orlando at the time told me they were shocked to see “Moeschen’s stupid ass” on their evening news. It was hilarious.
The Shuttle launch of Atlantis did not happen for another week, and by then, Vanessa and I were back at school in New Hampshire. I never did see a launch. That still bums me out, but it turned out to be a marvelous adventure anyway.
Shouldn’t that be the point of leaving the house? Adventure is everywhere.
Stay safe, stay awesome, and stay tuned.
Moeschen! 