DECATUR — Amanda Duncan, Jacey Smith, and sisters Alex and Emily Lucas will be able to tell their grandchildren they were standing on Cape Canaveral Beach as they watched the space shuttle Atlantis launch for its final mission on July 8.
The four girls watched history in the making as the shuttle roared into the Florida sky in a stream of fire and smoke. The shuttle’s trip to bring supplies to the International Space Station will be the final mission of NASA's Space Shuttle Program.
Duncan, a sixth grade student, and Smith, a first grade student, both attend Decatur Northside Elementary School, and Alex and Emily Lucas, in first and second grade, are Smith's cousins from Vinita, Okla. The group of family and friends planned their Florida vacation with the hope of seeing the space shuttle launch for the last time, according to Duncan.
“It was very, very loud. We were five miles away and we could see it pretty clearly,” said Duncan of the launch, describing the noise as a crackling roar.
“It looked just like a big ball of fire. We couldn't see the tank or the rocket boosters fall away because they were over the ocean and it was cloudy weather,” said Jacey Smith.
“It went kaboom, and then there was a grumbly roar,” described Emily Lucas.
The group also visited the Kennedy Space Center and rode a launch simulator. The girls described the “bobble head” simulator ride with lots of laughter and squeals of delight. The simulator gives riders the sensation of 3 Gs of gravity as it shakes and roars and ends with the sensation of weightlessness in space, said the girls’ grandmother, Brenda Ratliff.
Jacey Smith's mother, Jacque Smith, is a science teacher at Northside Elementary School and has a fascination with NASA which, in part, led to her career as a science teacher. She attended space camp as a child and worked as a space camp counselor in recent years.
After seeing the July 8 launch and riding the simulator, Jacey Smith and Emily Lucas agree they want to be astronauts when they grow up if their mothers will let them. While AlexLucas isn't so sure, she reminded them they could be whatever they wanted when they grow up.
Other highlights of the trip included visiting Disney World, Sea World and playing at the beach. Duncan said she saw a hammerhead shark caught off an ocean pier. She brought home lots of souvenirs.
Watching the space shuttle launch is an experience Duncan said she will share with her grandchildren.
“It was very cool and exciting. I saw history,” she said.
The space shuttle Atlantis pulled away from the International Space Station on Tuesday morning and is scheduled to return to earth on Thursday.
News, Pages 3 on 07/20/2011