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Pat Duggins
Pat Duggins
Senior News Analyst
pduggins@wmfe.org


 

ENDEAVOUR—The graveyard shift

 

March 10, 2008—Overnighters at the Kennedy Space Center. Been there, done that. Space Shuttle Endeavour has to blast off at 2:28 am Tuesday to be on the right course to catch the International Space Station. That means a bleary eyed night for journalists at the KSC News Center as the Shuttle carries up the first section of the Japanese KIBO lab.

 

As bad as this early morning launch may be, the worst night like this has to have been STS-48, back in 1991. The Shuttle’s payload was the fourteen thousand pound, school bus sized, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. It was known by the nickname UARS. The launch went fine, and deployment of the satellite went fine. Then, Discovery’s crew was supposed to make the first-ever night-time landing at the Kennedy Space Center. So, we in the KSC press corp trudged out to the Shuttle landing strip for the overnight touchdown. We stood in the damp grass with Chief Astronaut Steve Nagel buzzing around overhead in a NASA training jet. The red color of the mission’s crew patch, matched the red of our eyes as we awaited Discovery’s return. The weather looked great, Nagel indicated. Still, when the Shuttle fired its jets for the return trip to Earth, the destination was Edwards Air Force Base in California, and not Florida—much to the dismay of the assembled Florida reporters. We never did get a good answer on why the switch was made.

 

We’d have to wait until 1993, when Shuttle Discovery, Commanded by Astronaut Frank Culbertson made the first Florida landing in the dark.

 

Everything looks good for Endeavour’s launch Tuesday morning. At least, NASA can’t switch launch sites at the last minute.

 

BTW, I look forward to seeing everybody at the College Park Family Picnic, this Sunday 3/16, at 12 noon at Dartmouth Park at the corner of Edgewater Drive and Dartmouth Avenue. They made a generous invitation for me to have a book signing for "Final Countdown". So come get a hot dog, and a book! Copies are also available at Barnes and Noble, amazon.com, and through Scientific American's Book Club at...

 

http://www.sciambookclub.com/doc/full_site_enrollment/detail/fse_product_detail.jhtml?repositoryId=903808B450

 

More to come.

 

Photo courtesy of NASA

 

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