Let's do launch

On Labor Day, I visited Kennedy Space Center for the second time since I’ve lived in Florida. If you’ve visited Orlando but have never been to KSC, be sure to visit on your next trip. It’s an hour from Disney (less than an hour from my home), about half the price, and as they say, it’s worlds apart.

When you live so close to the place, anything that happens at the Center is on the local news broadcasts, so you hear about the shuttle, and missile launches, and details that you won’t hear on national news. While the rest of the country may forget the space program or take it for granted, it's alive and well in Central Florida.

With the upcoming launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, I spent considerable time at the International Space Station building, asking questions about how the ISS is being constructed, and about the upcoming shuttle mission. While other recent missions were to deliver supplies, this 11-day mission will have the shuttle crew performing three spacewalks to install actual "building" parts (the "P3/P4 integrated truss and solar arrays", which will double the current power generating capability of the station). And let me tell you, being there and seeing it all is absolutely awesome, in the true sense of the word.

I wish people who don't understand why we have a space program could see and understand the medical and biological research being done in space; for instance, I learned on this visit that it's helpful to do medical research in space because zero gravity makes protein molecules easier to see and study. So the space station is NOT all about space travel; there is important research being conducted that is easier to do in space than on planet earth and that may save lives some day.

So today, after a lightning strike, a hurricane threat, a fuel sensor issue, and God knows what other obstacles, Atlantis finally launched at 11:14 a.m. I watched it on TV with great interest and yes, pride. Someday I'll see a launch in person. But having been to Kennedy, and seeing everything up close and personal, I have a real sense of awe and respect for the space program and the folks with the vision and dream to pursue space flight.

LABOR DAY PHOTOS

Right: Some of the future payloads for the International Space Station. Japan will be sending a module up in 2007.

Left: The "crawler" used to transport Atlantis to the launchpad. It travels a maximum of 1 mile/hour, which is why it takes up to 8 hours to go the 3-mile distance to the pad.

Right: The VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), one of the largest buildings in the world. It was originally built for assembly of Apollo and Saturn rockets, but then was modified for the space shuttles.

Left: Space Shuttle Atlantis on Launch Pad B. You can just see the red tip of the main fuel tank.