Discovery STS-131 headed for the Space Station on April 5, 2010 at 6:21AM. Five of us made the trek to the Kennedy Space Center to see such a sight. Originally, the launch was supposed to take place in mid-March when my family was due to visit, but for some reason or another AFTER we purchased tickets, the date was changed. I love their disclaimer, “Launching humans into space is a very complex business and dates can be changed at any time for thousands of reasons.” However, no refunds so I finally found people to purchase the tickets from me and come along for the adventure.
I was off work at 11:30PM, so I headed home and prepared to leave. We headed out around 2AM because we had to arrive at the space center by 4AM. Then, I napped until 5:45, grabbed some hot chocolate and watched Discovery launch. I honestly was not as impressed with this launch – maybe because of our location/viewing, maybe because of the time of day – the sun was starting to rise – or maybe just because the first one I experienced in February was the cherry on the ice cream.
By the time people cleared out, it was close to 7AM and Teresa was ready to explore. We stayed at the space center until noon. We watched some clips on the Hubble Telescope on IMAX screen. It was neat, but we’d be awake all night, so several of us dosed off…
We took the tour out to see the Saturn Rocket that took crews to the moon. Overall, it was a really neat place. A big mind opener for how much bigger this place is outside of Earth. The Earth as a whole is like a grain of sand; it’s amazing.
After the space center and souvenir shopping, Teresa, Erin, and I headed to Cocoa Beach. We made a pit stop at the skydiving place to pick up my long lost hoodie. The beach was crazy busy, but we found a spot and sorta passed out. Don’t forget, we had all been awake a while now working full shifts the previous day. I would like to mention that I did apply sunscreen to myself, but later that evening when we returned home, it was noted that my sunscreen was not effective as I was as red as a lobster. Now, a week later, I am healed of my sunburn and done peeling. Yipee!
I very much enjoyed my time at the beach. I think it’s really neat to look out for miles and miles and it’s just water. The ocean looks so huge, but then I remember the space center and how tiny we really are. It’s a hard concept to wrap your brain around.
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