Space Shuttle

 

We decided on a whim to see the final shuttle launch. We knew that NASA was retiring the space shuttle program to pursue a new program and had been saying for a while that we wanted to see one launch in person. We had tried to get tickets to the causeway, but we were never selected, so on the day of the final launch we decided to just get as close as we could.

We literally pulled into a parking spot 10 minutes before it was set to launch and jumped out of car to get a spot alongside the water. Pictures really don’t do it justice since I was more interested in seeing it than taking pictures. It also was extremely cloudy. I was pretty shocked they ended up going ahead with the launch.

Ava thought it was neat, especially since we had watched several of the launches on TV, she was able to see it in person. I have been told that the clouds muffled the rumble quite a bit, so it would have been much better if the weather had been on our side.

  

Would we do it again? Probably not. But we are really glad we went since it was the last one. I think it is really neat that Ava had the opportunity to see it.

Atlantis, the shuttle we saw, will come back to the Kennedy Space Center and be set up in a museum, so its even cooler that we will be able to take Ava back a while from now to see it up close and in person.

You can still see the smoke trail from the shuttle in the background.

We had a nice trip and it was especially nice that we didn’t spend hours waiting just to get a good spot. Plus, it truly was a once in a lifetime experience, there will never be another one!