And Away She Goes

AN OPENING AND AN ENDING: Shuttle Atlantis as scheduled for an 11:20-something ET departure this morning, which meant 8:20-something for we Left-Coasters. Knowing the drill, I knew that meant that much of the Really Important Stuff (tanking, astronauts getting suited up and heading in the Astrovan to the launch pad) would happen while I slumbered.

When we went to bed last night, just after 11, things were looking dismal. There was only a 30 percent chance for launch based on predicted inclement weather near the launchpad.

I was up at 5 a.m. and I immediately fired up the computer to see if it was a scrub. Much to my delight, the launch had NOT been scrubbed. In fact, a couple of the astronauts were already in Atlantis, raring to go.

Twitter was the best way to keep up on the latest, and by 7:30 PacCoast time, suddenly the weather gods smiled down on Atlantis and lo and behold she got a GREEN for launch weather wise. Since the launch team wasn't working any issues, this meant all systems were go for the launch. Woohoo!The launch was picture perfect and historic.Image: NASA.gov

And I'm happy to report, part of MPA was in the mix of things on this historic day! A friend delivered the space shuttle cookies we made here at MPA to our NASA/space shuttle engineer friend to take to the control room today. And in return, he invited her to attend the launch as his guest!!! And so, my friend and our cookies had one helluva day! She was kind enough to send me updates - and photos - all along the adventure. For instance, she sent me a photo of the cookie and the man who does the umbilical connections for space shuttles. Wowie! And she gave a shuttle cookie to Fred, the NASA barber who has cut all the astronauts' hair, dating back to the Gemini and Apollo missions. Wow, talk about history!

She sent me a photo of our shuttle sitting on some shuttle related hardware from past launch pad activites! And my favorite photo from her was of one of our shuttle cookies sitting on a control room panel this morning, watching over this morning's actvities. WOW! How fun for our kitchen to be included on such a historic day in U.S. Space Program history!