Maybe Tomorrow

All right! After a great Super Bowl weekend, I was expecting to follow up with the STS 99 launch on Monday at 12:47 P.M. As I left my house, I began to have some doubts due to the weather. It was misty, and the temperature was a lot lower than expected. I had just checked the launch updates prior to leaving, and everything was still a go. I got to the office and picked up my pass to the viewing area. My primary job for the day was to get the launch on film for later use by the Quest Team. My pass would take me to the Banana Creek viewing area - one of the best the Center has to offer. After arriving at Banana Creek, I found a good vantage point to film from and tested my equipment. Everything looked good, and I was ready to go! Shortly after the equipment checks, the mist had turned to rain. To protect the equipment, I packed up and moved inside the Saturn Apollo Facility.

While waiting out the rain, I had the pleasure of talking to many people from all over the world! Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and Denmark, to mention a few. Everyone was very excited about the launch but skeptical of the weather. In the meantime, they had plenty of time to marvel inside the Saturn Apollo Facility. This is a place that I would recommend all of you to visit if you come to Kennedy Space Center. The building is built around an actual Saturn V rocket that was intended for the Apollo program. After years of sitting on its side at Kennedy Space Center, it was given the respect that it certainly deserves - a home! This rocket is HUGE - 363 feet long with five engines on it that are also huge. In the photograph at right, you can compare the size of the people in the foreground with the Saturn rocket. I was not able to find an angle to get the entire rocket in the picture because it is so big. The Saturn rocket was the workhorse of the Apollo program and brought many moments of pride to the space program and our nation!

Several hours had now gone by, and my attention was focusing on what was happening on launch pad 39A with the STS-99 crew. The weather was already in question, and then it was announced that a technical issue regarding the Master Computer had come in to play. The launch window was only two hours, and we were just about 20 minutes away from the window. As time went on, it was becoming more obvious that weather alone would put the mission on hold. The word finally came that the mission would be postponed for 24 hours. Hopefully, the weather will clear up and the technicians will have some time to address the Master Computer issue.

In any case, I will be back at it tomorrow and eagerly looking forward to the launch and the beginning of the SRTM!