SpaceX Demo-2 Launch

The day was July 8th, 2011. The Mission was STS-135, the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis and the last mission of the shuttle program. I remember walking down to the river in my hometown to catch a glimpse of this historic and bittersweet moment. The Shuttles program had already been in full swing for nine years before I was born. It had already suffered the tragic loss of Shuttle Challenger and her crew. But it had come back, safer and stronger than before. I don’t remember my first shuttle launch; it was just a common part of my life growing up. In my family, we’d turn on the TV to watch the final minutes of the countdown before dashing out the front door and looking east to catch a glimpse of Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis, or Endeavour as they popped out from behind the trees and rocketed into space. Then we’d always wait to hear the sonic booms as the shuttle broke the sound barrier on its way into outer space.

Space shuttle Atlantis is seen as it launches from pad 39A on Friday, July 8, 2011, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The launch of Atlantis, STS-135, is the final flight of the shuttle program, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

One thing I was never able to see in person was the shuttle on its gliding flight to land at the Kennedy Space Center. But I heard it many a time. Following Columbia’s loss during reentry, it was reassuring to hear the BOOM BOOM that was capable of rattling you from sleep because you knew the shuttle had safely transported her crew and cargo beyond our planet’s atmosphere and brought them home to earth again.

It was sad to see the shuttle program come to an end. Some people have a favorite sports figure or musician. Growing up, I had a favorite shuttle. It was hard to imagine those majestic machines being relegated to museum pieces across the country. Never to see them strapped to an external tank and boosters, never again to see the fire that would burst from the engines as they roared to life, pushing them off the launch pad as they climbed higher and higher, leaving the gravity of earth for the weightlessness of space.

Little did I realize on that July afternoon in 2011, that not only was the shuttle program coming to an end, but it would be nine years before astronauts would lift off from the space coast.

STS 135 moments before touching down at the Kennedy Space Center for the final time.

Fast forward to today, and the landscape of space exploration looks quite different. It feels a bit like we have stepped back in time to the early days when Alan Shephard, aboard the Mercury-Redstone rocket, in a spacecraft named Freedom 7 became the first American to travel into space and the first man to manually control his ship in outer space. But while the new machine that will take men to space is not as exciting to me, as the shuttles, I am thrilled that astronauts will once again be lifting off from the Space Coast.

Let’s talk briefly about the launch.
With the Launch of SpaceX Demo-2, we will see several firsts.

1. The first launch of Astronauts from the USA in 9 years.
2. It will be the first time the Crew Dragon has carried a Crew into space.
3. It will be the first time a Commercial company will send a crew into space.
4. It will be the first US spaceflight mission not to include the presence of Public at the KSC visitors complex. Everyone will be much further away.
5. It will be the first 2-person only crew launched from the USA, since STS-4 in 1982
6. It will be the longest time the entire crew from a US spacecraft will stay at the space station. The crew is expected to remain from 1-3 months. On a typical Shuttle mission, they remained for no more than two weeks.
7. It will be the first time a crew capsule will splashdown in the Atlantic. (All previous capsule splashdowns have occurred in the Pacific.)

The crew of the Demo-2 mission has been with NASA since 2000 and are both veterans of the Shuttle Program. In fact, the spacecraft commander, Douglas Hurley, was the pilot of shuttle Atlantis on the final mission, STS-135, in 2011. It seems only fitting that one of the crew from that final flight should hold the distinction of being among the first to return to space. Alongside Hurley, is Robert Behnken, the joint operations commander of the flight. This will be the third flight into space for both men. There is not a specific date for their splashdown in the Atlantic. The crew is expected to dock with the ISS and remain there for 1 to 4 months.

Demo-2 Artwork – Spacex.com

The Falcon 9 rocket that will carry Hurley and Behnken into space will lift off from Launch Complex 39A, or as we call it, Pad 39A. This launchpad has been in service, with modification, of course, since the first Saturn V launch carried the unmanned Apollo 4 spacecraft into space in 1967. All of the crewed Apollo missions, beginning with Apollo 8, used Pad 39A. The pad was reconfigured for the shuttle program, and STS-1, the first flight of the Shuttle Program, christened the pad in 1981. It was the sight of the first 24 launches of the shuttle program. 39A would also be the location of the final Shuttle launches, culminating in the launch of Atlantis in 2011. But the history of 39A lives on, as it from here that SpaceX has launched several historic flights and it is from here that Demo-2 will blast off carrying Americans into space from American soil once again.

Let’s watch it together

Live – SpaceX on Wednesday the 27th at 4:33 pm EDT

Backup launch dates Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT and Sunday, May 31 at 3:00 p.m. EDT.

My vantage point will be available on Youtube on the day following the launch.

Enjoy!

Crossing the Florida Straits by Air in 1913

Wilbur and Orville Wright took flight in a plane at Kitty Hawk for the 1st flight in history in 1903. At the time, a young man, Domingo Rosillo del Toro, was 25 years of age. Little could he imagine at the time that he would be a record-setting pilot in the years ahead.

Wright Brothers

Over the next few decades, pilots would set records that people had never thought possible. Today, of course, we take for granted that planes can fly long distances, they can refuel in the air, they can travel faster than the speed of sound, they can carry vast amounts of cargo, and drop that cargo with precision in places that are in inaccessible by plane. Back in 1903, that wasn’t the case, and in the decades following, many aviators set records for the firsts in aviation history.

The first flights were flown overland. While this was dangerous in the event of a crash, more treacherous still was to travel over water.

It was Frenchman Louis Bleriot who would make one of the first trips over water. His adventure would-be a record-setting flight. The water he would cross? The 21 miles over the English Channel. He succeeded in doing this in 1909, just six years after the first man flew for 120 feet at Kitty Hawk.

But as with most adventurers, they’re always looking for something else to do; another record they can break. One the next challengers afforded to them was the opportunity to cross the Florida Straits. Now the Florida Straits is the water that runs between Key West and Cuba for a distance of 90 miles. In 1911, the city of Havana and a Havana newspaper decided to sponsor the first Cuban air meet, offering $8000 to the first man to cross the treacherous Florida Straits.

Canadian Captian James Mccurdy was one of the first to attempt the flight. With US Navy destroyers Rose, Drayton, Reed, and Terry stationed at 20-mile intervals to guide his way by their smoke, he took off from Key West. He flew over two destroyers before being forced to make an emergency landing in the choppy waters just 10 miles short of Havana.

While this was a sad loss for him, his failure left the Florida Straits open for other pilots to make their name in history. The next two adventuresome pilots who would try were two men of Cuban descent. As an added incentive, the prize had been boosted to $10,000.

The two men with viable chances of success were Domingo Rosillo del Toro, who was born in 1878 to Cuban parents, and Augustin Parla, born in 1887 in Key West.
While both men did succeed in making the voyage, though separated by two days, we will focus on Rosillo.

Both men prepared to fly across the Florida straits in May 1913. The starting point is Key West, FL. Parla had bought a Curtiss seaplane, while Rosillo reportedly purchased a MORANE-SULNIER monoplane though some reports say it was a different plane Rosillo purchased, a Bleriot XI.

Rosillo chose May 17th as the day for his flight. Learning of this, his opponent, Parla, decided to try on that day too. However, Parla wasn’t able to take off. The men took off from opposite sides of the island. Unfortunately, high winds caused Parla’s float to rupture and snap the wires secured their wings, and so he was delayed by two days.

Domingo Rosillo del Toro

Rosillo’s plane had an open cockpit and weighed less than 1000 pounds. He had only a small compass for directions and no flotation device to protect him in case of a water landing. Before taking off for Cuba, the mayor of Key West gave him letters to take to Havana. So he technically set two records; that of making the longest flight across the water, and that of the longest mail delivery service over water.

Rosillo finished the flight in over 2 hours (2 hours 4) minutes to be exact). The same flight would take a jet plane about 20 minutes to complete today. However, Rosillo was only traveling at about 40 mph through turbulent conditions. Flying over the outskirts of Havana, Rosillo’s fuel was gone, the engine overheated, and some people say that he had a monkey on board. There is no conclusive evidence of this, but it is a popular rumor. Upon arriving, Rosillo was met by a military gun salute at the nearby Havana fortress.

Rosillo’s pioneering spirit is what America is made of. He showed that spirit by risking his life to span the gulf between his new homeland and that of his ancestors. His name should be remembered in both American and Cuban history.

Castillo De San Marcos

When people think of Florida, they think sand between their toes as they relax on the beach, or about getting a photo with their favorite character at the happiest place in Florida (You know where I am talking about).

But there is so much more to Florida, than the stereotypical image people have of the Sunshine State. In this video I will share with you one of the oldest attractions in Florida, the Castillo De San Marcos in St. Augustine Florida.

Timeline taken from the National Park Service Website

1513 Sailing from Puerto Rico, Spanish claim Florida.

1565 Spanish found St. Augustine and destroy French at Fort Caroline and Matanzas Inlet.

1672 Ground is broken on October 2 for Castillo de San Marcos.

1695 Castillo de San Marcos (curtain walls, bastions, living quarters,
moat, ravelin, and seawall) is finished in August.

1702 War of the Spanish Succession pits Spain and France against Austria,
Great Britain, and others. Coastal Georgia missions are destroyed by Carolinians en route to St. Augustine. Carolinians occupy and burn St. Augustine but the Castillo successfully resists their siege.

1738 Spanish governor at St. Augustine grants freedom to runaway
British slaves. Black families settle at new town called Fort Mose.

1740 St. Augustine successfully endures siege by British, Georgian, and
South Carolinian forces. Spanish attack and defeat British Highland
troops camped at Fort Mose.

1740–42 Fort Matanzas is built to block southern approach to St. Augustine.

1756–62 Fort Mose rebuilt in masonry. Earthworks at Mose extended
to complete northernmost defense.

1763 Peace of Paris gives Florida to Great Britain in exchange for La Habana. Castillo becomes known as Fort St. Mark.

1783 Peace of Paris recognizes independence of the United States and returns Florida to Spain.

1821 Spain cedes Florida to the United States.

1825 Castillo de San Marcos renamed Fort Marion.

1924 Fort Marion and Fort Matanzas are proclaimed national monuments.

1933 Fort Marion and Fort Matanzas are transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service.

1935 National Park Service begins exclusive administration of both
national monuments.

1942 Original name— Castillo de San Marcos— is restored.