We woke up at 6 in the morning to prepare for our exciting day. The first thing we did was go get badges to be able to do the webcast in the O&C (Operations and Checkout) Building. It was a lengthy process, but we got cool picture IDs that allowed us to enter areas regular people couldn't go to! After that, we had a short tour of the Merritt Island National Refuge and saw different animals and plants. It was funny because at the same time you saw palm trees you also saw scrub and cacti! Unfortunately, the manatees were not out at that time. However, I was so nervous about the webcast I couldn't really concentrate on seeing anything anyway!

As the webcast rolled on by in the O&C, I felt much better talking on camera. We (Sabrina, Marissa, and I) had a blast as people sent us a number of questions. I answered as best as I could and enjoyed seeing our faces on the monitor. Hi to everyone who sent us questions!

The VIP Tour

At 2 o'clock, I saw many, many people all ready to join the VIP tour. It was also flooded with many astronauts, like Ken Cockrell! Most of the people there were women who were invited to join. This was the beginning of busy festivities for the rest of the day (and night!).

The LCC

We had a quick tour of the Launch Control Center. There is more than one of them, so one LCC was being refurbished. The one which was in use was filled with all the consoles. Each console has five people to it who look after a certain system. There were already a few people working inside the LCC in preparation for the launch.

The VAB

Once you get inside the VAB, there ain't no saying it's small. It's huge! Even the doors of the VAB were beyond comparison. The inside is full of braces, trusses, and other structures. In one of the high bays, there was an ET/SRB stack craned high up all ready for orbiter mate. On the other side of the building sat the first two segments of a booster. Believe me, just one of these segments is large enough!

Astronaut Joan Higginbotham- She was the first astronaut I met and I got her autograph too! In the VAB, I described my purpose for being at the launch. Joan said that electrical engineers are the most abundant engineers at the Cape. She is a new astronaut, waiting for flight assignment and seemed very energetic.

The OPF

The best part of the facilities tour was the Orbiter Processing Facility. Inside was the orbiter Atlantis in its full glory. The VIPs were separated into small groups and went around the bay. We got to climb the service stairs to look at Atlantis, many parts sometimes less than an armlength away. I walked under the orbiter and I could see the scorch marks of the black tiles from thousands of degrees of heat. I even touched one of the wheels! To give you a perspective, the wheel was almost my height in diameter. That's about five feet! Towards the aft of the shuttle were the openings where the three main engines would go. Just massive! The next part was the nose of the orbiter with the many windows covered. Then, a United Space Alliance (USA) engineer opened a hatch and we could see right inside of the payload bay. It contained some sort of payload. With many ambitious ladies in the tour around, the engineer gave some of us cloth gloves to actually touch the orbiter tiles! This was beyond what I expected. Wonderful!

USA Engineers- I asked two engineers some questions. I learned that the RMS (Remote Manipulator System, aka. robot arm) is not taken out after every mission, USA engineers are basically the only people to work on the shuttle, etc., etc.

Dinner

This was no ordinary dinner. Famous space exploration people were all around. There were even little sticks of butter shaped like an orbiter! Towards the end of the dinner, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin gave a speech about women in space and about his already space-eager little granddaughter.

Astronaut Ken Cockrell- After dinner, I went up to the space shuttle commander, introduced myself, and got an autograph. Cool!

Discussion

This panel of people included Sally Ride, Marta Bohn-Meyer (first woman to fly an SR-71), Kathryn Sullivan, Donna Shirley, Ynonne Cagle (astronaut), Jennifer Harris (flight director of the Mars Pathfinder), and Ellen Ochoa. It was such a funny forum that many of the panelists broke out laughing! They talked about women's roles in science and how it is changing. No one should have missed it. Their struggle to do their best was inspiring. Dawn Riley, the person I interviewed the day before, sat in front of me, and I got an autograph.

Crew Walkout

A short but exciting time, it was the public's last chance to see the crew before they headed out to the launch pad. It was so hard to get a good view that I had to fish out my press badge to the suspicious security guard and climb over to the press side to actually see something. It only lasted a few seconds, but the walkout was like when movie stars exit from a building with tons of people cheering and flashing cameras.

Donna Shirley- I finally got to meet the former head of the Mars Exploration Program at JPL. During the panel discussion, she had so much power in what she was saying. A tough lady, exactly like what she was like in her autobiographical book. And, yeah, another signature!

Workshop

There was a workshop presented to us about the differences between men and women and about training the body to do what you want (e.g. controlling your heart rate). It was interesting, but how can it be not fun when one of the presenters is a neuroendocrinologist!

Astronaut Ellen Ochoa- I've been trying to get a talk with Ellen for a while. She was on the last space shuttle mission, STS-96. I was following the mission very closely because Canadian astronaut Julie Payette was on board. I told Ellen that I missed her crew presentation in Edmonton because I had just travelled to Florida two days earlier. She said she enjoyed their presentation at our Space and Science Centre. Ellen then gave me an autograph, and awesome... she gave me a real STS-96 mission patch!

Astronauts/Panelists Q&A

The First Lady was supposed to come and give a speech to us, but she got delayed so all of us left to go out to the bleachers to see the launch. However, while we were waiting, the astronauts and some of the panelists came out to answer any more questions.

Astronaut Yvonne Cagle- Yvonne sat beside me while we were waiting for the First Lady. We had a short chat. I talked about my involvement in this mission. Yvonne said that she came to Edmonton before. I then told her that she should go to our Canadian Rockies as it is a very beautiful place. By then, I had all of my badges hanging on my shirt. She saw them and she told me that I should save all those badges. No doubt, I will.

So, the last thing to anticipate was the launch..........