Last Space Shuttle Launch
Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
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Titusville, Florida hosted Woodstock several times a year in the Space Shuttle era. I'm sure other people came from Wisconsin to watch the last launch on July 8, 2011. Not many, though, got there by way of San Francisco and Los Angeles on a 9,000 mile road trip. |
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| Above: cormorants | Below: the Vehicle Assembly Building. |
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Commemorative Plaques
| Mostly commemorating images from the space program rather than specific events. | |
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Below: handprints of Neil Armstrong (left) and Buzz Aldrin (right). |
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Left: John F. Kennedy issuing the challenge to go to the Moon. Below: Members of the club: Alexey Leonov (left) and Velery Kubasov (right), Russian cosmonauts on the Apollo-Soyuz mission. |
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The Launch
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It had been a miserable day the previous day, and the scheduled time came and went. "It's not going to go." Then "Oh my God! There it is!" |
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And everyone yelled "USA! USA!..." One thing that struck me was the brilliant gold color of the flame. |
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| The exhaust plume lasts quite a while and the shadow of the plume is cast on the clouds from above. | It also takes some time for the sound of the launch to reach us. |
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| Now to get home. Along about after Milwaukee, I start thinking "Won't this trip ever be over?" | So now imagine feeling that way and you're still in Florida! |
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Created 04 November 2018, Last Update 04 June 2020