Endeavor Launch/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I had to talk Guy into going to this launch with me and about a month ago I got tickets for the 3 of us... this was Huge for me...(an item in my Bucket List).

THE GOOD

They advised we allow ourselves twice the travel time to get there and so we left here at 9PM, with extra jackets, blankets and cameras in hand. KSC did a great job in setting activities up for us to do while we waited the 4+ hours until launch time. We saw the 3D IMAX movie, many exhibits and then found our spot to sit and wait. In the area where we were, there was a huge screen showing us what was happening on the launch pad. We were able to watch the Astronauts go in the Shuttle and get strapped into their seats.

We watched Endeavor as they counted down and listened to all the checks the crew and ground crew went through.

There was a former Astronaut who spoke about his experiences and described what was happening on the screen. I could not believe how quickly the time passed.

THE BAD

Only the normal holds, everything was in perfect condition for a perfect launch....then low clouds appeared and we ended up with a 6500' cloud cover, which blocked our view:(

It was so disappointing....this is all we saw:

It was over in just 5 seconds...a huge blast, the sky lit up and then the shuttle disappeared into those &^%$ clouds!

THE UGLY

Guy had the binocular camera and had taken about 100 pictures all through the evening so we were excited to see them. The batteries were dead after all of those snapshots and he had to change the batteries before I could download them.....well, by removing the batteries it also removed all the pictures....so we lost all of those precious pictures! &^%$$ (there is no memory chip for this camera).

We were in a lose, lose situation....nothing could be done about it....it sure spoiled Guy's day...he's still sputtering about it....Oh well......that's life:(