bodger | Feb. 28th, 2011

While poking around on facebook, I noticed an event for the STS-133 space shuttle launch. This reminded me that I'd always wanted to see a shuttle launch, and there were only two launches left. I had, actually, experienced a shuttle launch a while back, from the Kissimmee/St. Cloud area, halfway across Florida from the cape. It was a dawn launch, and I was to the west, so I couldn't see anything at all other than the rising sun. I listened to the radio and waited for a bit, but I couldn't see or hear anything, so I turned around and headed back to my hotel room. At that point, the sound reached me. It had been attenuated and delayed by the distance, but I was still impressed.

So I clicked on the "I'm attending" link, not really sure whether I'd be able to realistically do so. However, some friends of mine noticed and I started getting messages asking if I was going, and if I had an event pass and so forth. I explained that I didn't have a pass, and hadn't yet made any travel arrangements. One person mentioned on FB that she might have an extra pass, so I requested it, but it went to someone else. I poked around on the airline sites, but the nearby airports only had expensive flights at inconvenient times, so I didn't pursue it. Then I started hearing from aramintamd and vvalkyri that they might still have an extra pass (providing an interesting illustration of a social networking site actually yielding a real benefit). At this point, the launch was in a few days, but I tried at the travel sites again, and managed to nab a workable flight into Orlando. I was unable to choose a seat, but that wasn't important. I realized that this was a basically insane quest. I was going to fly down in the morning and back in the evening. If anything went wrong, I'd miss the launch. I already had plans to see the Mummers Show of Shows that weekend, so I couldn't stick around.

( But I figured any chance to see a shuttle launch was better than none )