3...2...1...Liftoff!

STS-132: Atlantis lifts off for the last time
Ben Cooper, Launch Photography

It was dark when we woke up.  Dark because the shades were drawn, and we had gotten to our hotel so late we knew we wouldn't be getting much sleep.  Also because it was before dawn.  Come to think of it, that's probably the main reason.

Our tickets to Kennedy Space Center said we had to arrive by 9am.  Expecting a lot of traffic, we left around 6am to make the 1-hour (on a good day) trip due east from Orlando to Cape Canaveral.  As we drove through the marshland to the coast, the sun rose ahead of us, and traffic was no concern at all.  We arrived at KSC around 7am, not really sure what we were going to do all day, but excited for the big moment that would come at 2:19pm.

I had never been to KSC before, though even I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed our day there.  In the early morning light, we walked among the towering converted missiles of the early space program in the Rocket Garden.  We saw the stages of early spaceflight become the modern shuttle program.  We played in Mercury and Apollo capsules.  We rode a shuttle launch simulator ride.  And all of this before breakfast.

As the morning continued, we found ourselves more and more drawn to one of the lawns where would eventually view the launch.  Although we did not have a clear view of the launchpad itself, there were large screens set up with live video feeds of the pad and activity around the Atlantis.  Speakers throughout the grounds were tuned to listen in on communications between Mission Control, Launch Control, and the vehicle itself.  Near one of the screens, a small stage was set up.  Here one of NASA's extremely knowledgeable Communications Officers would describe in detail what was happening as the external fuel tank (the large orange tank underneath the shuttle) was filled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen.  We could see the astronauts putting their suits on, riding up the shuttle, and being strapped in.

What was more, two astronauts took the stage as well.  They talked not only about their experiences in space, but what was happening right now with the crew of STS-132.  What they were thinking and feeling as they were strapped into the most complex machine mankind has ever built.  What we should expect to see as the launch neared, and began.  We knew the astronaut's nicknames, and how they earned them.  We knew how they chose their meals for their time in space.  We knew what they were carrying to the International Space Station.  The effect of all of this was two-fold.  For people like me, who had dreamed of being there for as long as they could remember, we felt so much more a part of the launch.  We were invested in it emotionally as well as intellectually.  For those like Lynn, who did not have the decades of background knowledge in spaceflight, it brought them into that community as well.  As the countdown clock ticked lower and lower, everyone in attendance became more than spectators, we became a community of supporters.

With about a half hour before the launch, things began moving quickly.  We heard the final checks being performed and confirmed over the radio.  A helicopter swept back and forth over the Cape checking to make sure the airspace was clear.

At nine minutes, we all stood up.  The walkway to the shuttle was retracted.  A crowd of thousands held their breath.

Two minutes.  We cheered as the oxygen tank cap swung away from the top of the large orange fuel tank.  This is the last piece of the launch tower attached the shuttle, the astronauts call it the "parking break."  The astronauts closed their helmet visors.

One minute to go, all systems check, power and communications are internal to the vehical.  Houston checks in with Launch Control.  Everything's ready.

Thirty seconds: Ground Launch Sequnce starts

Ten seconds: On our screen, we see a close up of the main engines.  Sparks begin to fly, these will burn up any excess hydrogen fuel in the area so there are no uncontrolled explosions.

Six seconds: Main engines start.  The flames are so hot they are clear and blue, and focused into tight cones behind the engines.  The shuttle rocks forward in reaction to the engines firing.

One second: The shuttle rocks back.

Zero: The white Solid Rocket Boosters on either side of the fuel tank ignite.  Smoke billows out to the side.  The shuttle lifts off the pad.  It's the most effortless movement, the one thing this incredible machine was designed to do exceedingly well.  And it does.  It rises smoothly and quickly straight up, building a pillar of smoke beneath it.

At this, we all look to the east, waiting for the shuttle to come into view.  It was the longest ten seconds I've ever experienced.  Ten seconds of anticipation to see, with my own eyes, what I'd watched so many times on TV and computer screens.  My life paused for ten seconds.

Ben Cooper, Launch Photography

And then it came over the trees.  Even seven miles away, it was larger than I expected.  And it was such a clear day, we could see every detail.  Such grace.  And it was so bright.  So bright it startled me.  So bright it moved me.  As if the rocket boosters were so powerful they had torn a hole of the sky behind them, and the sun was shining through.

Thirty seconds later, the wall of sound finally reached us.

We watched Atlantis gracefully roll over, putting the shuttle itself at the bottom of the arc it would take up into the sky.  I was five years old again, in my living room in Detroit.  I had my metal toy shuttle pressed against the TV screen, lining it up with the trail of smoke from the real shuttle.  My cheeks were puffed out from the growling noise I made and imagined the real rocket engines were making.  I was in that little toy shuttle, and I was going somewhere I'd never been before.  My thoughts, and my spirits, and my dreams went into that real shuttle on this day.  They rose with Atlantis and her crew to a new place, a new adventure.  They were unstoppable.

About two minutes after lift-off, Atlantis had one more final farewell for those us on the ground.  The sky was so clear, we saw the solid rocket boosters reach the end of their fuel, and jettison from the sides of the shuttle.  They fell off to each side, and their flames went out.  They began to fall, and eventually parachute down to the ocean.

Our eyes back to the large screen on the lawn, we watched from the external cameras attached to the external fuel tank.  We saw the horizon of the Earth begin to curve, with the darkness of space beginning to surround it.  Finally, eight minutes after launch, the external tank detached from the shuttle.  Another cheer went up from the crowd.  Atlantis was in space.  We watched as the cameras on the tank continued to transmit, Atlantis seemed to float away.  We could see the underside of the shuttle sliding easily out of view as the cameras finally stopped.

Looking around us on the ground was like waking up from an incredible dream.  I had to remember where I was, how I got there.  Lynn squeezed my hand, and I was happy.  Heading back to Orlando took nearly three and a half hours with the traffic.  Lynn was driving the first shift, and I fell asleep in the passenger seat.  I dreamed.  I dreamed the same dream as moments before, and all those years ago.