Go Discovery

I needn’t tell you that I enjoyed my time as a SHARP Apprentice. I needn’t mention my incredible time spent working on environmental cleanup projects with real scientists, or wax poetic about the incredible opportunities afforded a sixteen-year-old kid. I needn’t say so, because any SHARP can and will say the same.
But I do feel I need to mention the Return to Flight.
Have you ever seen a shuttle launch? Perhaps you have. It is a visually impressive thing. I saw the liftoff of STS-114 from the Vehicle Assembly Building, only a few miles from Launch Complex 39B. The shuttle, looking small but very real—not at all toylike—mounts to the skies, climbing into the blue as if drawn there, because that is where she belongs.
Yes, a shuttle launch is a visually impressive thing, but the auditory experience trumps the visual hands down.
Have you ever heard the space shuttle’s rumble from three miles away? It is loud. Believe you me, it is loud. Louder than the security helicopter that flew ten feet over my head. Louder than our cheers as we hailed the crew of Discovery leaving their quarters in the O&C building. Louder than my pounding heart as I heard the words, “Main engine start.” Louder than the exultant cheers in my head as I watched her ascend, the cheers of “We made it! We did it! We’re back in business!” It is a sound that permeates your entire being and literally threatens to bring you to the ground. It grabs your chest and shakes your heart with it. For a moment there is nothing but that triumphant rumble.
As a lifelong resident of the Space Coast, I have seen my share of launches. But never have I seen a launch from the VAB, where it all happens. Never have I felt that I was part of the action; never have I been able to cry “We made it! We did it! We’re back in business!” rather than “They, they, they.” Perhaps I’m only an apprentice in the Applied Sciences Branch. But for eight weeks at least, I’m also a member of the NASA family. My thoughts, my dreams, my best wishes now travel with Discovery.
Discovery is now climbing beyond the clouds, balanced not only on her delicate plume of exhaust, but on the thoughts, dreams, and best wishes of all the people around the world who cry, “We made it! We did it! We’re back in business!”; on the hard work and dedication of all the NASA family; and on the memory of the Columbia/STS-107 crew, whose tragic loss can in some small way be compensated for in dozens of improvements made to the Shuttle program. Discovery rides on all these now.
All of this went through my head as I returned to my office, and all the while, I could not stop grinning. We did it; we made it; we’re back in business. Godspeed, Discovery.


Originally penned for the SHARP newsletter. AW is obviously responsible for this gem, but I'm putting AMB's name to it because, well, my entire department has seen it thanks to Dr. Quinn. *embarrassed*