Last Week in Tucson...

Piggy-back Endeavour - September 20, 2012

I finally saw a space shuttle!  Years ago, I went to see a space shuttle “launch.”  Well, I saw a movie anyway… in IMAX!  My dream though, one of them, was to travel to Florida to see an actual shuttle lift-off, but I never made it. I did hear one, one time.

I don’t remember which shuttle it was, but in the early years of the program, probably before the Challenger loss, I stood outside my truck one morning and listened, and watched, for the shuttle to come over Arizona as it prepared to land at its alternate runway at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.  I think it was the only time it landed there – Edwards AFB and the Kennedy Space Center were both weathered-in and NASA needed to get the machine back on the ground.  I think the hungry astronauts were running out of food or something…

So a few minutes before it would have to overfly the Arizona desert, I stood outside on a sidewalk beside a busy north Phoenix street, and hoped that I would see a contrail – or perhaps hear the twin sonic booms that were its signature.  I didn’t see it – but as the observers in New Mexico were exclaiming that it was in sight, I did hear those twin booms.  It was exhilarating, and I am sure I talked about it the rest of the day and probably the next day too.

I have mentioned before about my Dad’s work in the American space program, and almost everyone I know knows about his work on the SRB’s – I’ve told everyone that story – so I won’t repeat that one here. Likewise, I've yapped about the importance of the space program – including not just remote or automated exploration but also human space flight – in the end, that is the only way mankind can survive.  We may have plenty of time for that, or we may not.  But we better keep working on it…

So this last year, the space shuttle (Endeavour) went to space and back for the last time – with astronaut Mark Kelly at “the stick.”  Atlantis was the last shuttle to go to space and back – but Endeavour was the last to make its last flight to its post-space home.  Here’s what NASA says about it on their website…

Endeavour was NASA’s fifth and final space shuttle to be built. Construction began on Sept. 28, 1987 and it rolled out of the assembly plant in Palmdale, Calif. in April 1991. It was named after a ship chartered to traverse the South Pacific in 1768 and captained by 18th century explorer James Cook. Endeavour flew 25 times, traveling more than 122,000 miles and accumulating 299 days in space. Like shuttles Discovery, Enterprise and Atlantis, Endeavour is embarking on its next mission – to inspire the next generation of explorers and engineers at the California Science Center.

Endeavour’s “26^th” mission brought it flying over Tucson, Arizona.  I was in Tucson, attending a training class; that entire class of American traffic school instructor patriots trooped out to the parking lot at Pima County Community College on Bonita Street – and we waited for it to arrive.

Endeavour arrived over Tucson on the back of its Boeing 747 transporter – and it made two broad-banking passes over the city.  This was so Mark Kelly and his wife, Arizona’s Gabrielle Giffords, could see the shuttle Kelly commanded, on its last journey.  I saw only one of its circuits around the city – and I am satisfied with that.  I didn’t know it was coming back around – I thought it might – but I didn’t stay outside long enough to see the second pass.

But it was awesome – it was glorious – it was magnificent.  Then it went on to Edwards AFB, eventually made a pass or two over SFO, and then landed in Los Angeles at LAX to spend some time in a hangar in preparation for its becoming a California Science Center museum piece.  Ah, gone too soon!

America, let’s get busy.  We need to regain our focus and initiative and reinvigorate our drive into the unknown, ideally with other space-looking nations as our partners. We need to get our next human-carrying spacecraft into the dark blue beyond, and we need to go to Mars.  I don’t think we’ll find much there.  But we’ll sure learn a lot in the endeavour.  Let’s GO.

September 24, 2012