Attending Shuttle Launch Awes and Inspires Chuck Winter, IHS Industry Vice President, Aerospace and Defense, attended the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on June 8, 2007. He was invited by NASA as a representative of the Colorado Space Coalition, an alliance of stakeholders whose volunteer initiatives promote Colorado’s space industry. Eighteen people from Colorado attended the launch, which was the 118th space shuttle flight, the 21st flight to the International Space Station, and the 28th flight for Atlantis. The mission, STS-117, was originally slated for liftoff on March 15, but the flight was delayed when a powerful February hail storm damaged the protective insulation of the shuttle’s external fuel tank. Repairs that would stand up to the thermal and aerodynamic forces of the launch were undertaken and the mission was rescheduled. The 14-day, 5.8-million-mile journey successfully increased the power capacity of the space station. Atlantis’ crew made four space walks to attach a new solar array truss segment on the right side of the station’s backbone, deploy a new solar array, and retract a starboard solar array back into its box. The added power capability makes way for delivery in the future of laboratory modules from France, Italy, and Japan, which will help make the station more truly international.
At 2:00 A.M. on the day of the launch, a NASA bus arrived to take Winter and his fellow observers to a site near the launch pad for a night-viewing of the shuttle. Against the black night sky, illuminated by four enormous spotlights, the shuttle stood out in clean, white detail in front of the russet-colored external fuel tank. Even the clouds above the shuttle were fringed with light. After the impressive viewing, the observers went back to Orlando.
The next afternoon, they were taken again to Kennedy Space Center to OS2 where they were greeted by a NASA guide and given goodie bags. The group—which was now made up of about 300 people, including senators, governors, former astronauts, representatives from the Veteran’s Administration, and warfighters who had been seriously wounded in Iraq—went into a VIP viewing area to watch the launch. In a large briefing room on the fifth floor, the group sat at a long table and listened and watched on three giant TV screens as NASA officials briefed them on the mission.
An astronaut spoke about each crewmember on the mission, honoring in particular the states from which some of the astronauts come, including Virginia, Texas, and Colorado. Mission Specialist Steven R. Swanson is from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The mission was his first journey into space.
Another representative of NASA spoke about its bold ambition by 2020 to establish a manned outpost on the moon from which to launch manned missions to Mars and other destinations in the solar system. NASA plans for teams to cycle in and out of the permanent outpost as they do now on the space station. Other sorties to explore different locations on the moon could be launched from the outpost as well, including investigation of permanently dark regions that could yield water ice.
As the countdown continued, the astronaut described what it was like to be aboard the shuttle and experience the sensation of blastoff. The guests were invited out onto the balcony where NASA officials answered their questions and loudspeakers broadcast the communications from Mission Control. After a series of scheduled holds and once the mission clock had counted down to nine minutes, Mission Control talked to each area to get a go for launch. The last one was the mission commander who spoke about what the mission meant and thanked everyone for the work they’d done. Then the final countdown began. It was a clear day. Winter said that at the moment of the launch he didn’t hear anything at all. First, he felt the rumble, and then, a few moments later, came the sound like the thundering of a thousand Harley-Davidsons. The shuttle slowly lifted into the sky. The boosters dropped off. It was a successful and spectacular launch.
Afterward, the guests were treated to a meal of navy beans, chopped ham, and cornbread—a curious menu for a VIP occasion. The reason, they discovered, was tradition. Back in the old Atlas days, when men were working around the clock to get a rocket ready to launch, an engineer’s wife worried that the crew might run out of food, so she brought a crock-pot full of hearty food to keep them going. Thus the tradition was begun that after every successful launch, everyone eats beans, ham, and cornbread.
After he returned home, Winter wondered if NASA has always done enough to let the public know the value of the shuttle program, to give people the chance to be inspired, as he was. How many, he thought, know what has been accomplished during these 118 missions? Would the public be more supportive if it better understood the endeavors of the Shuttle program as it heads into retirement and makes way for the Orion? Without that understanding, will a new generation of boys and girls dream of becoming astronauts? Winter hopes so, because for him, to be present and part of a launch and to understand the future of the space program inspired hope.
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