A Few Minutes on the Outside

A majority of the posts I have written over the past year have been focused on looking at what KSC does from the inside. I would like to wander away from that for a couple minutes to talk about you - the people outside the gates.

As I mentioned in the last entry, I was not able to watch the launch of STS-120 from the space center. My flight for Houston departed at 2:00pm. There was no way I could watch from Kennedy and still make it to Orlando on time. If you have never visited for a launch you will have to trust me when I say that traffic leaving the Titusville/Cocoa Beach/Merritt Island/Port Canaveral area after liftoff is terrible. There are actually people at KSC who will take launch days off just to avoid it.

My plan was to arrive at the airport just before launch and watch from the roof of the parking garage before going inside to catch my flight. It wasn't what I wanted, but I had no other choice. The entire drive felt like a race. If I lost, I'd miss the launch completely. If I won, the prize was a few minutes standing alone on a hot roof wishing I was back at KSC. I wasn't very excited about either outcome.

It was close, but I won. Imagine my surprise when I reached the top level of the garage and discovered clusters of people scattered against the railings and standing outside cars with radios tuned into the launch commentary.


They didn’t clap and cheer at liftoff like the Kennedy crowd does, but their presence on the rooftops sent me a very clear message. You, the people outside the gates, still care about what we do. Despite our failures you will still press pause on your day to watch 7 people realize their dreams at 25,800 miles an hour. Or, as I discovered days later in Houston, you'll still wait in the cold just to watch the International Space Station pass overhead on a clear night. In a world as rushed as ours that's very encouraging to me. Knowing people care about the missions we've dedicated our lives to makes a big difference. Everybody I shared this story with during our day of lunar meetings smiled too.

I don't know who you were standing on the rooftops with me. I don't know if it was your first launch or just your most recent. But whoever and wherever you are, thank you. It is because of you that I will remember STS-120 as a launch that inspired me; not because I again enjoyed the privileges my badge grants me, but because I lived momentarily as if they had been taken away. It turns out that 50 miles west of the launch site is exactly where I needed to be.


God speed, Discovery.