Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Approaching Launch Day

Ed's heading to Kennedy Space Center this week in hopes of watching Space Shuttle Atlantis on its last launch. Ed is Ed Reynolds, a writer for Black and White magazine, with whom I share earth space. He's been writing about outer space and NASA for several years now, long before I got to know him, so I had to go back into the B&W archives to see what he's written about shuttle flights and NASA before today (see below).

Spaceflight is a big deal to him -- for reasons that keep threatening, like the changeable weather in Florida, to become clear -- and he has been looking forward to this final big event at least since his last trip down in April ended in a disappointing delayed lift off that he had to miss.

Rain is predicted for launch day, Friday the 8th, and also for Saturday, an alternate day, but there is always a chance the weather will clear just enough for the launch. If it doesn't go off this week, NASA will postpone it until July 16. My main hope, beyond my wish for success - for everyone - for this last shuttle mission, is that Ed'll be able to catch a few winks while he's down there, even if this is a mind-blowing event during which no one in his or her right mind would sleep.

If you want to read about Ed's previous shuttle launch experiences, here are links to his articles in past B&W issues:
http://www.bwcitypaper.com/Articles-i-2006-08-10-170164.112112-Rocket-Man.html
http://www.bwcitypaper.com/Articles-i-2005-07-28-133474.112112-Liftoff-Letdown.html
And more articles on space here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/edreynoldswriting

No comments: