45 YEARS AND POINT 72 MILES

We didn’t know anything about Titusville other than it was just across the river from Launch Complex 39A and 39B. Being highly motivated space-buffs, we decided to just drive to Titusville and find a spot to park the car and wait for the launch. Driving down Grace Street in Titusville, we hit Riverview and the riverbank itself. Myself and my newly found fellow space-buffs Jennings and Brian had driven down from Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach in order to witness the United States first manned space launch in six and one half years- STS-1. The date was April 9, 1981 and the launch was scheduled to go on the following morning. For a few minutes we cruised up and down Riverview calculating a good place to park. I spotted a county pumping station and suggested we should park near it. That way if any of the locals gave us a hard time, we could just go onto county property. We pulled in, bailed out of the car and just stood there frozen by the sight of the white Space Shuttle bathed in those crossed spotlight beams. For a Moment, all three of us were kids again gazing at the wonder of spaceflight.

Unfortunately, that April 10 launch would be scrubbed due to a simple timing error of 40 milliseconds between the four primary computers aboard COLUMBIA and the vehicle’s back-up computer was the cause of the problem. It was easily solved the day following the first launch attempt by shutting everything down and restarting the system. That simple re-boot, however, could not be done at the point in the count where we were on Friday morning.

Everyone who was parked along the river, some said there was nearly a million of us, decided to come back Saturday night and camp out again in the same spot. On that Sunday morning we saw nothing but a silhouette of the Shuttle and Pad 39A as the sun came up. It was a bit hazy and so our view remained that of a silhouette against a stunning orange sky while the count ticked down. Like expectant parents we paced a bit and alternated between looking at the pad in the distance and focusing on the little TV set that one of the other campers had running in the trunk of his car. I kept running through my mind the fact that this was indeed history that could be considered on the scale of witnessing Freedom 7, or Friendship 7, or Gemini 3, or Apollo 8 or perhaps even Apollo 11. Countless space firsts were about to take place right in front of our eyes. The Space Shuttle was the next step in our nation’s space program. 

At main engine start we saw the silhouette of the steam cloud billowing from the engines working against the sound suppression water. Six seconds later the solids lit and we saw what looked like a second sunrise. Then the STS-1 stood up on two stilts of flame as bright as the sun. Everyone was screaming “GO!... Go Baby GO!... GO!” I heard myself screaming it and I heard it echoing up and down the riverbank. What I did not hear, was the Shuttle. Then I remembered something I read in Mike Collins’ book “Carrying the Fire.” He described watching the first Saturn V, Apollo 4, launch. Collins wrote that about the time he said to himself “You can’t hear it,” the sound hit him. And just as I had that thought, the sound hit us.

Just a dozen days short of exactly 45 years later, I again found myself on US1 cursing through the city of Titusville on my way to witness the next step in the U.S. space program. It was the launching of Artemis II and the return of mankind to the vicinity of the Moon. Again, I had driven down from Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach with a student, but this one was my oldest daughter Akie- who will graduate from the university in May. The mission today was Artemis II and this time instead of an early morning launch, liftoff was scheduled for the evening. Thus, rather than camping overnight, we’d simply find a good spot, park and be wait all day.

Just like STS-1 every press pass to the launch had been dolled out as soon as they were made available. Likewise, every ticket to any NASA visitor access had also long been sold. So, I told my daughter we were going “old school” with a cooler filled with ice, a bunch of “road trip food” a 12 pack of bottled water and the hope that the launch would not scrub. Leaving Daytona at 0530 we would drive through Titusville on US1 and just like my buddies and I had done on STS-1, we would simply look for any open area to park and wait.

No sooner had we started looking than we both shouted,

“There it is right there!”

I wheeled the car around and not only was this a vacant lot, but it actually had a paved driveway. Also, the lot had a TacoBell right across the street and a Duncin Donuts just a half mile farther down the US1. That meant two good things; 1) fresh drinks and snacks plus, and most important, 2) toilets. Indeed, we’d found the perfect location.

Before the morning expired, our little lot was filled with Artemis watchers. Near our car we formed a tight little group of launch watchers. Like a true space-nerd I brought up NASAspaceflight.com (NSF) on my phone and tuned into their broadcast with my high-speed data. Oddly, I realized that almost everyone there on the riverbank had no idea of what was going on over at KSC! There were only two of us who were following NSF. So, I took it upon myself to spread the word to get on NSF. Additionally, I’d shout out updates. Such as “The crew is walking out,” “They’re on their way to the pad,” “They’re strapping in,” and so on. Folks were really happy to get updates. In the final minutes of the countdown on of the guys nearby came up with a Bluetooth speaker and we plugged my phone in so everyone around could listen to the countdown.

A wide-open sky of blue opened downrange from our spot and as the SLS booster ignited nearly a half million voices cheered, screamed, and shouted. Having seen three shuttle launches from a similar location I knew that it would be more than a minute before the sound hit us. The SLS did not disappoint as Artemis II reached out and shook us all. Oddly, it seemed slightly less aggressive than a shuttle launch. Later when discussing that with Bob Castro. (the space nerd who has been at it just as long as me and was parked right next to us,) we pondered that it may be because the RS-25 engines were clustered between the SRBs rather than beside them.

Although my daughter had watched Artemis I launch, she had been a lot farther away. Now daddy got her up close. She was thrilled. I was satisfied that I had fulfilled one of my long-time promises to her. She had been watching and listening to spaceflight since she was a toddler. I always promised her that one day just her and I would go and see astronauts launch and after that we would do the whole KSC visitor bit together- so the day after the launch we did KSC too.

Our Artemis II riverbank gang

We had a great group with us on the riverbank for Artemis II, and just after liftoff I got a message from Verizon stating that I had used up all of my highspeed data. Watching NSF all day was worth it. Minus the internet, this all reminded me a great deal of doing STS1 back 45 years earlier. It was a long time ago, but when I looked on Google Earth, I saw that the place where my buddies and I had kept watch in 1981 was exactly point seven two miles north of where my daughter and I watched Artemis II. 

The circle is now completed.

It went that'a way!