Although it was somewhat disheartening to see the mission scrubbed so many times, few could say that it was not better to play it safe and the media's talk of the expense of scrubbing soon switched to a "better safe than sorry" tone. The mission itself takes one of the largest crews on one of the longest missions of the entire shuttle program. The ambitious schedule includes several experiments and four interactive teaching sessions with high schools across the country, including South High in Worcester.
Professor Sacco will be demonstrating a fluid experiment for the South High students, who attend the same school that Robert Goddard graduated from in 1904. This demonstration will take place on November 2nd at 1:10pm and several members of the WPI community will go out to the school to take part, including Zeolite Crystal Growth team members Ipek Guray, Jack Ferraro, Terri Sacco and Michelle Marceau.
One of the people who were lucky enough to see the actual liftoff was Professor Looft of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Professor Looft has been involved in WPI's space program since 1982, when WPI and MITRE reached an agreement for students to work on projects for space. As co-chair of the program with Dean Durgin, he oversaw the work of more than two hundred undergraduates, who worked for six years developing experiments for the Space Projects and Research Canister (SPARC) which flew aboard Columbia in 1991. Another WPI based, zeolite experiment flew in 1992 on USML-1 and a second WPI zeolite package flew on a 1993 mission.
Professor Looft's father was a life-long NASA employee, having worked on the Atlas rockets that flew to the moon among other projects. Also, as a graduate student the professor worked on experiments that went up in space and his involvement in GASCAN I brought him down to Cape Kennedy. In fact it was work on the first zeolite experiment for the first GASCAN that brought Looft into close contact with Sacco and they have been friends since - you may have seen them running together on occasion.
So when Dean Durgin, who was in Florida for many of the scrubs, found out that he didn't have time to go down for Friday the 20th, Looft jumped at the chance. He and his twelve year old son Matt bought tickets on Wednesday and on Thursday they were at Cape Kennedy, getting oriented. Both were getting ready to watch their first space launch and there was a good amount of nervous tension. Matt had a conversation with Sacco over e-mail the previous week and he also knows the professor from visits to his school.
They were able to watch the liftoff from the VIP area, with other close friends and family of the astronauts, an exclusive party of less than one hundred. Up until about twenty minutes before the launch, everyone felt that it would go, even though it had been raining less than one hour before. About five minutes before launch the sky started clearing up and the crowd was starting to get more excited about the possibility of a launch. Many in attendance had been there for all six scrubs.
The wife of shuttle commander Keith Bowersox sang a song: "God Bless Columbia" a feeling that was in the hearts of all the friends and family of the crew. With one minute to go, the crowd became quiet. With thirty seconds to launch, a cheer started to rise and at ten seconds they started to countdown. At five seconds the main engines ignited, but with a subdued noise and an incredible light under the shuttle. Then the solid boosters fired and there was a great crackling roar and a tremendous vapor cloud obscured the view of the shuttle. The stands began to vibrate and they could all feel the ground moving under their feet.
As the shuttle cleared the pad, spectators became caught up in the awesome display and could feel the presence of the rocket going up. It only lasted about ninety seconds, and all that was left was a vapor trail, but it was a sight you want to see again and again. Matt Looft took some incredible photographs of the launch which are on display in the office of the Secretary of the Faculty, Joan Shanahan (located in the Project Center).
When asked if he would like to be on the shuttle, Professor Looft laughed "I e-mailed Al and said that if he got the butterflies and didn't want to go, I would be more than happy to take his place."
Because the cable in Florida carried the NASA feed, the Loofts were able to watch much of the first few days of the mission and according to the professor: "Al looked a little green around the gills and a little tired the first day, but by the second and third day he and the entire crew looked like they were having a ball."
If anyone has a question for professor Sacco you are invited to call CityLine at 792-9400 and enter 6272 (NASA). This is part of a program being run by the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, and the questions will be asked in a live interview on November 3rd.
Give feedback: newspeak@wpi.wpi.edu