Liftoff!

In case you missed it somehow, Friday night we finally launched Atlantis. The weather was perfect and we got her off the ground right on time. Myca came with me as I rode with a bus of launch guests, so we got to watch from the Banana Creek Viewing site outside of the Apollo Saturn V Building. It's the same area the astronauts' guests watch from, and is one of the closest places you can be to the launch.

Here's Myca on the bus ride out to Orlando to pick up our guests.


We made it to the viewing site about 3.5 hours before launch. Here she is with one of the countdown clocks in front of the bleachers. I also took a picture of the launchpad from where we were standing. After this we walked around a little.


The Saturn V building is a cool stop on the tour they do when you go to the KSC Visitor Complex. One of the rockets from the Apollo program that we didn't get to fly is hanging from the celing so you can walk around underneath it. It is very impressive.

I also snapped Myca's picture with the crew module and service module, with an old astronaut van, and with one of the moon cars.



She also met another astronaut, Greg H. Johnson, who was outside working the launch and was kind enough to take a picture. He will be going up on STS-123 next year. I realized later I probably shouldn't have asked for a picture since I was supposed to be working, but I was so caught up in the excitement of everything I wasn't thinking straight. Hopefully the nice people in public affairs will forgive me.


And then there's the launch...


I also found a great video on YouTube that somebody took of the launch from the same place where we watched. That's exactly what it's like - what you see and what you hear right down to the people clapping and cheering. I am so thankful I get to be part of it.

STS-117 is scheduled to be in orbit for 11 days. The mission will be shown on NASA TV, and I recommend tuning in to see them stretch out the solar panels I was talking about when we toured the Payload Changout Room (PCR) at the Pad. If your TV doesn't have the NASA channel you can watch on the web.

Here's to a successful mission. Godspeed Atlantis and crew!