Megalextoria

Once nice thing about living along the Space Coast is the ability to walk out my front door and see launches from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Lately this includes Space X Falcon 9 launches, Atlas V launches and Delta 4 launches. It used to also include Space Shuttle launches.

Even though I live close enough to get a decent view of the launches, I’ve still gone to KSC property on a couple of occasions to see them close up. One such time was in February 2000 when I watched the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-99 mission. Buying the launch viewing opportunity ticket gets you as close as you get get to the Launch Pad 39 complex as a member of the public, which is still a few miles away.

Human space flight is still rare enough that most launches are still historic in some way. In the case of this Endeavour launch, it was the last launch of Endeavour that was not an International Space Station dedicated mission. It was also the last flight of Endeavour to use the original Space Shuttle cockpit layout before being upgraded to the glass cockpit.

The mission itself was the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The purpose was to create the most complete and high resolution digital topographic database of the Earth. A specially modified C-band and X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) was used to complete this task and the 11-day mission was a success, generating over 8 terabytes of data.

One of the bad things about buying the viewing ticket is that you have to come back when ever a launch is scrubbed and this happens often. The ticket is good for that particular mission so whenever it finally launches, no matter how long it is ultimately delayed, the ticket is still good for that launch. It’s just a matter of you being available which may be difficult if you were here on vacation. This particular mission was scrubbed twice and ended up launching 11 days later than planned. Fortunately, these were not lat minute cancellations so at least I had several hours notice and didn’t have to drive out there and back. This is not always hte case.

At any rate, the experience is well worth it. I recommend waiting until the Falcon Heavy launches or perhaps even NASA’s new Space Launch System but if you are in the area and there happens to be a launch of any kind, get tickets if you can and if not, you can still get pretty close along the beach nearby.

In many ways, the peak of the U.S. manned space program occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s when almost regular trips were being taken to the Moon. The Saturn V, the most powerful rocket ever built, is what made that possible. To this day, it is still the only rocket that has ever carried humans beyond low Earth orbit.

Saturn V 1st stage

A total of 15 flight capable Saturn Vs were built but only 13 ever flew. In addition to those 15, there were another 3 that were built for ground testing. The first Moon landing was launched by Apollo 11 (actually the 6th launch of the Saturn V). The sixth and final Moon landing was launched by Apollo 17 in 1972. This was also the only night launch of the Saturn V.

There was one more unmanned launch of the Saturn V to launch Skylab in 1973. This Saturn V was originally designated for the cancelled Apollo 18 mission. That leaves two more Saturn Vs that were never used. The second and third stages of the Saturn V that was designated for the cancelled Apollo 19 mission can be seen at the Kennedy Space Center (pictured above and below). The first stage is at the Johnson Space Center. The first stage that is at KSC is from a static test firing that occurred before the Saturn V’s first flight. The final Saturn V is similarly divided among different museums around the country. Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 would have also been moon landings.

Saturn V 3rd stage

Before the Apollo program was cancelled, there were some big plans for further launches to the moon using the Saturn V and plans for more powerful future Saturn V derivative rockets. One plan called for using such a launch vehicle for a mission to Mars in 1980. Ultimately, cost was the factor that led to the end of the Saturn V and future plans based on potential derivatives. Each Saturn V launch cost a total of more than a billion dollars in today’s dollars. This is pretty close to what Space Shuttle launches cost though it was originally intended to be cheaper because of reusability. NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System is planned to exceed the capabilities of the Saturn V and eventually take humans to Mars in the 2030s, 50 or more years later. Supposedly, it will only cost approximately 500 million per launch.

The pictures above were taken during a visit to KSC in February 2000. The Saturn V is still there today though :)

Just a friendly PSA. Alway backup your data. If not the whole drive, then at least irreplaceable files like digital photos, video and important documents. These pictures show various hard drives that I personally own that have gone bad for one reason or another over the years. Sizes range from 30 GB to 1.5 TB, brands include Seagate, Maxtor, Fujitsu and Western Digital and manufacture dates range from 2003 to 2010. It’s been a while since I have had one go bad. That could be a sign that drives have gotten more reliable or I could have just been lucky. One thing is for certain: a hard drive, whether mechanical or an SSD WILL go bad sooner or later and it is not guaranteed to make it until your next new computer.

Also, you shouldn’t trust 3rd party cloud services for your only data backup. If they ever go out of business, get hacked, or suffer some other disaster, no matter how unlikely that may seem, you’ll be out of luck. And always keep a backup in a separate location, preferably with some significant geographical separation. Sound paranoid? Maybe… but consider how much it would suck if you lost every digital photo, video, or other important file you have ever had.