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Fuzzy Takes Team Toad to a Shuttle Night Launch (Endeavour STS-123 Trip Report)
Michael Mauldin fuzzy@lazytoad.com
Saturday, March 23, 2008 (updated March 31, 2008)

Fuzzy had so much fun watching the launch of Atlantis STS-122 in February that he grabbed Launch Transportation Tickets for the whole family for the next launch, Endeavour STS-123. Sadly Dan had to stay in Pittsburgh for school, and Jacey was away at college, but Debbie and Kelsey flew down to Florida the weekend before the launch.

Tickets

Once again we had Launch Transportation Tickets, which are good for a bus ride out to the NASA Banana River causeway.

The main advantage of watching from the causeway is that you can see the shuttle on the pad at the moment of ignition. The causeway is six and a half miles (10.5 Km) from the pad. By comparison, the astronauts immediate families watch from the top of the launch control building about 3.2 miles away, and the press area is about 3.1 miles away.

The Kennedy Space center sells a lot of tickets to View a launch from the visitor's center, but you can't see the launch until after the shuttle has cleared the launch pad...that's really not the whole launch.

So how do you get LTT tickets?

First, plan ahead...LTT tickets are only sold one mission at a time. They go on sale shortly after the end of the previous mission, and sell out within minutes (for STS-124 the tickets went on sale Monday, April 7th at 9am EDT; the regular tickets sold out in 5 minutes and the premium tickets sold out in 10 minutes).

Get on the KSC mailing list. Next chose your experience. There are LTT tickets and "Premium" LTT tickets. The Premium version includes a meal at the KSC with an astronaut. I haven't done the meal ticket, but I assume it's a typical catered dinner with an interesting talk from an astronaut.

The LTT tickets sell out in 2-4 minutes...the Premium tickets sell out slower, but they were gone in 8 minutes last time. The online ticket sales don't reserve your ticket until they process your credit card, so a lot of people are still typing only to find that the LTT tickets are sold. They then try to get Premium tickets, and some of them make it.

If you're on the email list, you'll get an email notice telling you when the new tickets will go on sale. Be ready at your browser with your credit card in hand (I have an advantage over you, because I know my credit card number by heart). Then the second the tickets go on sale, start typing. Type fast, but don't make any mistakes...once you're sale is "confirmed", you're in. Your tickets will arrive by UPS 2-day shipping on the date you specified in the online form.

Warning: scrubs

Historically the chance of the shuttle launching on any given try is 50%. If you fly to Florida for the launch, consider refundable tickets so you can change without penalty. Pack enough clothing for the entire launch window (usually a week). Rent your car for a whole week. Be flexible.

Before you buy LTT tickets from KSC, be sure you understand the scrub cancellation policy. Once you get on the bus to the causeway, your ticket is "used". That means if the launch scrubs after that point, you no longer have a bus ticket for the next launch attempt.

For STS-122, our driver told us that if the launch scrubbed while we were out on the causeway waiting, on our return to the visitor's center we would receive coupons giving us a chance to buy a new bus ticket (for $50) at the ticket booths. Without such a coupon, you'd have to get on the phone and take your chances with the thousands of other people trying to get bus tickets for themselves.

But the paperwork from KSC doesn't mention this policy...in writing it just says that your ticket is used.

So what can you do? Buy extra LTT tickets to start with. Listen, if you've spent over a thousand dollars on airfare, hotel and rental car, an extra $50 a ticket seems like good insurance.

Also: note that if you go with a friend or relative, you can take turns in lines without having to carry all your stuff or lose your place in line.

KSC Visitor's Center

Whether you have a regular Launch Viewing Ticket or the highly desirable Launch Transportation Ticket, you also get two days of admission to the visitor's center, including the bus tours. My advice is to come the day before the launch and do all the touristy things: take the bus tours, see the IMAX shows, check out the Rocket Garden.

We took our tours on Sunday, so we'd be able to rest up for the launch Monday night.

The south entrance to the Kenendy Space Center complex

The visitor's center

DNB (the company that manages tourism at KSC) built this fake gantry for tourists to view the pads from 1.2 miles away

Family with pad 39A in the background

View of Endeavour on the pad with the RSS surrounding the orbiter

Yes, there are alligators at NASA

The Apollo 8 control room (at the Saturn V museum)

Kelsey with a Saturn V first stage above her

You can touch a real moon rock

The Apollo command and service modules

The rocket garden at the KSC visitor's center

For just 24 billion dollars, you too can have your own Mercury capsule

Launch

Night launches have the potential to be the most amazing sight. On a really clear night you can see the orbiter for the entire time of powered flight: 8 minutes. That means you can still see the rocket flame while the orbiter is over Spain.

Sadly on our night, there was a low overcast about 5,000 feet, so we could see the shuttle for only 26 seconds before it disappeared into the clouds. Still it was a truly awesome sight to see the night lit up like daytime.

Tips for viewing a launch with LTT tickets

Warning: these tips are for hardcode space cadets ONLY

Be early. Be at the front of the lines. It pays.

Park your car by the exit of the parking lot. Since you won't be back to the parking lot for at least an hour after the launch, the 8,000 people viewing the launch from the visitor's center will already be in their cars trying to leave. The close your car is to the exit, the faster you get out (bonus points for pointing your car the right direction).

Take your camera, but the photos that you want are photos of you and your family and friends. Unless you're a hardcore photographer, your photos of the launch won't look like what you want. NASA gets the best photos because they shoot from much closer than you're allowed to be.
To see the official NASA photos, go to Current Shuttle Mission and click on Multimedia, then find the Archives.
Okay, you're going to ignore me and watch the launch through the viewfinder of your camera. It's okay, that's what I do, too. At the very least get some good advice like Stan Jirman's guide to shuttle launch photography.
Take a friend. You're going to be in line with 5,000 people waiting for the buses. If you want to be at the front of the line, you'll need to be in line for a few hours. With a friend, you can take turns going to the bathroom, buying food, etc.
Bring a seat. You're going to be waitng in three different areas: two or three hours waiting to get in line for the bus. Then an hour or more of waiting in the official line waiting to get on the bus. Then you'll be at the causeway for about two hours before the launch. You need a folding chair that you can carry easily, fold quickly, and won't collapse under you. KSC only allows umbrella-style folding chairs.
Since we fly in and out, we usually buy a $10 chair at Wal-Mart once we get to Florida, and then give it away to someone at the hotel before we leave.
The fastest way to buy a drink at the visitor's center is the souvenir shop. They have small fridges at the checkout lines, and they have more cashier's than the restaurant or the snack cart.
You want to be in one of the first buses so you can get right up to the rope at the causeway. With fewer and fewer launches, there's likely to be more and more people on the causeway. People were lined up 10 deep on the causeway for this launch.
Binoculars allow you to see the orbiter while it's on the pad.
Dress to be outside; jacket or sweater for night launches, hat, sunscreen for day launches, and maybe bug spray for launches during bug season. Have a chapstick with you.
They have porta-potties on the causeway, but with a big crowd you might find the line 10-20 people deep at times. Go easy on the Big Gulp's earlier in the day.
Don't bother bringing a radio...they have loud-speakers that announce the countdown, and listening on a radio just creates a weird echo that makes both garbled. The radio will just annoy people around you.
Know what is prohibited: you cannot bring knives, GPS's, backpacks, non-umbrella chairs, and a host of other items.

I did get some pretty good photos, even if I didn't get the whole 8 minute time lapse image. I completely ignored the advice about cameras; I had three cameras and three tripods. I had my Canon 30D with the massive 600mm f4.0L on a Gitzo tripod with a Wimberely head. That was used to take the regular images.

Then I had two cameras on tripods for time lapse exposures. The Canon 5D with a wide angle lens and a neutral density 0.9 filter at f20, and the Canon 1Ds3 with a wide angle lens, and a neutral density 0.9 filter at f22. Both were supposed to be set on ISO 100, but I had taken some night shots the night before with the 5D, and left it set on ISO 3200. Oops. Good thing I had two cameras!

I used a pair of Canon TC-80N3 remote controllers, and I started the time lapse cameras at T-10 seconds. A soon as the shuttle disappeared into the cloud deck, I turned off the exposure.

Spotlights illuminate the Endeavour on Pad 39A

The orbiter access arm is retracted (taken T-4 minutes)

Time lapse image of the takeoff (39 second exposure started at T-10 seconds)

SME ignition (T-4 seconds)

Rising above the steam clouds (T+6 seconds)

Shuttle clears the tower (T+7 seconds)

Roll program completed (T+16 secconds)

Into the clouds at (T+21 seconds)

After the launch, it took us an hour to get back to the car, but the traffic was really light at 4am, so we got a few hours of sleep before I took them back to the Orlando airport. I stayed behind because I was invited to a special tour behind the scenes next day.

Tour

After I wrote about my experience shooting STS-122, I found out that I had a fellow robot combat competitor who works for NASA and who invited me for a tour the next time I was in Florida.

Thanks to him, I got a once-in-a-lifetime tour behind the scenes.

I was able to go inside places I'd only dreamed of seeing, but I couldn't bring the family. He was able to get me cleared for this tour because I have a technical PhD, and because they wanted to hear me talk about the history of search engines.

Guess that PhD came in handy after all!

Next day (Wednesday) I get to visit behind the scenes. Since the astronauts are in orbit, I can take this parking space at the Operations and Checkout building.

This is the door where the astronauts make their final stroll to the van that takes them to the pad

They walk in front of this banner signed by the entire workforce of KSC (2500x400 pixels)
Larger: 5000x800 (1.6 Mb)
Largest: 7400x1200 (3/0 Mb)

Next I got to visit the Vehicle Assembly Building

This door leads into the low bay

Inside there is a lot of structure. It's not just a big empty building

Me with their 250 ton crane

Looking straight up 525 feet

This day they had one of the SRB's assembled. You can just barely see part of it behind the building super structure.

The underside of the mobile launch platform. The three openings are for the exhaust to blow through

This frame fits over the orbiter

This frame is used to hoist the orbiter

Next I visited the OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility) to see the Discovery being prepped for STS-124.

Me with the Discovery

The Discovery's main engines

These doors are open during takeoff to allow the external tanks fuel lines to connect to the shuttle

Long view of the starboard side of Discovery

The starboard side of the nose. The thrusters are covered when the shuttle is on the ground.

Yes, I was "this close"

The "pointy end" is actually fairly blunt.

Access to the inside of the orbiter is by clean room only. The dirtiest things that go inside the shuttle are the astronauts, themselves.

Two techs installing a tile. You can see the hole on the upper left of the photo

The crew of STS-124, scheduled to launch May 25, 2008

For each mission, the children of the crew cover a whiteboard. Here's the board from STS-86

Me visiting Pad 39B. We had to park a quarter mile away and walk.

The inside of the RSS. This covers the orbiter when it's on the pad.

On the way up the elevator to the top.

Me on the top of Pad 39B with the VAB in the background

This catwalk leads to the "beanie cap" (the vent arm).

Stairs to nowhere (just like in Harry Potter). These provide access when the RSS is covering the shuttle.

This cleanroom leads to the shuttle when it's on the pad.

I was this close

One of the very few unmarked doors at NASA. What is it?

The last toilet the astronauts see until landing.

Emergency egress baskets...in case of emergency the they jump in the baskets, pull a lever, and ride down cables...

...to a waiting armored personnel carrier.

The 300,000 gallon supply tank for the Sound Suppression Water System. To the right is the Liquid Hydrogen tank.

The blast deflectors. The one on the left is for the SRBs, and the one on the right is for the shuttle main engines.

Pad 39A seen from Pad 39B. You can still see the mobile launcher platform at the pad, but the shuttle is gone into outer space.

No, it's a 50 lb steel plate. It just does the same job as a 50 lb sandbag.