SpaceLaunchNews.com and SLN: Up to the Minute this week are giving away the combo movie package from IMAX, The Blue Planet & The Dream is Alive - on Blu-Ray! In this age of better high definition, what better way for us to share the love than with these new Blu-Ray movies in 1080p.Here’s how to enter:
- Simply leave a comment on this post with an answer to our question: "What was your most memorable moment from the last 28 years of the Space Shuttle era".
We’ll pick the most interesting and thought driven answer to win this weekend and announce the winner on Monday, May 4th, 2009, right here on SLN's Up to the Minute.
If you win, we will email you and announce the winner's name only right here.
So, that’s pretty much all the general stuff you need to know — win an unopened IMAX Blu-Ray of the Blue Planet and the wonderful The Dream is Alive. You cannot find, much less even buy this at the NASA centers! Thank-you for your support.
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I was in third grade at a school on the west coast of Florida near the Tampa Bay area. My sister was a kindergartener, so she got out of school aroud noon. My dad was in the parent pick up line to take her home from school, and my class was outside using the restrooms. He saw me, called me over and told me to look up in the sky. Challenger had just launched, and I will never forget what I saw that day as it exploded in the air. The image is etched in brain. Even in third grade I was an avid space enthusiast and hoped one day I would be able to travel to space.
I am so glad that one event did not end the shuttle program. When the program launched again in 1988, my class stood outside and watched the relaunch of the program. No other launches have touched me as much as those two.
Hmm, the Skylab launch in 1975, the last Saturn-V, doesn't count because it was too long ago. Within the time frame, it would have to be being at Edwards Air Force Base for the landing of STS-1. I woke up in the middle of the California night to watch the launch on TV, and was one of thousands who was on hand to watch a space ship return to Earth.
My most memorable Shuttle Moment came on April 29, 1990. I was visiting my sister Judy and her family in San Fernando Ca. when a news bulletin came on saying the shuttle was landing at Edwards the next morning. My brother-in-law asked me if I wanted to see it land. I couldn’t believe my ears. Well the adventure began at that moment. I am just a farm boy from NY and the space program was always a million miles from me even though I had followed it since I was that farm boy.
Edwards was a two hour drive from San Fernando and STS-31 Discovery, as I now know, was scheduled to land at 7am the next morning. So we decided to get an early start at 330 am just in case we ran into problems. The first problem was getting doughnuts. It took forever. I couldn’t believe I was going to miss a shuttle landing over a dozen dough-balls. But we got back on the road again and climbed the mountains. As we neared Edwards we saw a long line of headlights. The nearer we got the more concerned we got because we could see it was a line of cars waiting to get in the front gate of the base. We decided to take the radio’s advice and go for the rear viewing location at the base instead.
The sun was rising, the Joshua trees were beautiful, the sky was clear, and the radio said the landing was still a go. When we arrived in the huge parking area, there were thousands of others there to see the same thing. When we got out of the car, it could not believe it. There was a full scale wind storm like I had never felt before in process. With the sun shining no less. By NY standards there should have been snow on the ground. I couldn’t believe the shuttle could possibly land in this wind.
We wrapped up in anything we could find in the car and started waiting for the landing. But we had no idea where to look nor did anyone else around us. However soon we heard the famous double sonic boom and we knew it was close. A moment later someone yelled out “There it is”. And at that moment knew I was really going to see the space shuttle. I couldn’t believe it.
There it was, so small, so high, so quiet. How could it possibly get down to this runway was my thought. Then the moment hit me, “Oh My God, there it was the Discovery with my own eyes.” I said to myself. Coming home from delivering the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. With the sun glaring in our eyes, we watched it silently fly by, dropping fast, and disappear into the desert haze. Then a puff of dust and we knew it was on the ground.
I had just witnessed a piece of American Aerospace history. I had seen a space craft silently glide out of the morning sunrise and land majestically on the desert floor. What a beautiful site.
A moment I will never forget.
April 29, 1990
I wrote a short note to my sister Judy a few days later which has a bit more detail about this moment. I will send a copy to you under separate cover.
Well, I'm not so sure that this memory can or will be considered a "moment" for the purposes of this giveaway or not, but I wanted to share it anyway.
My "moment" was and is a prolonged event (or series of events) that continues to evolve even today. As a young boy growing up in the distant reaches of the south pacific, I dreamed of one day going to to space, or at the very least, somehow being involved in some small way in the space industry (after all, shoot for the stars and you might hit the moon right?). At the time, I figured this would entail either moving to Russia, or of course the United States, neither of which seemed likely for a little kiwi boy from New Zealand. With little opportunity to get involved first hand with manned space exploration, I contented myself to join my high school astronomy club, watch the space shuttle on tv, and keep my dreams of spaceflight to my family and closest friends. However, in 2002, I got the opportunity to study Physics-Astronomy here in the US. In 2006 I began my MS in Aerospace Engineering, and last year began working for a company who specializes in GNC, specifically with applications to rendezvous and docking, in none other than Houston.
Each step of the way, as I felt I was getting closer to my dream, I gradually became more and more confident not only of achieving my goals, but also sharing my enthusiasm with ALL those around me, not just those close to me.
So for me, the space shuttle era has helped me realize that ANY body who sets their mind to it, and works hard at it, can be a part of the great adventure we call manned space flight. And for those of us who share this passion, we can and should do all we can to promote the plethora of "spinoffs" that benefit all aspects of life on and off the earth that have come about as a direct result of a space transportation system defined by the "era of the space shuttle"
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