Mission to Cape Canaveral
by Ian Kluft
See also the
Mission
to Cape Canaveral '99. (Nov 1999)
![[animated teaser/sampler]](intro-anim.gif)
This is an online presentation of my vacation to Central Florida
in late September and early October, 1997.
I visited the AMSAT Phase-3D lab in Orlando and watched the
launch of STS-86, the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Even before I left on the trip, all my friends told me to bring
back pictures. I did and here they are.
(Those of you with graphical browsers can see an animated sample to the left.
If you have a text-based browser, select the "sampler" link to download it.
For those with sight-impaired browsers, I hope my narrative is good enough.)
People who have similar interests in aviation, space or
radio might also be interested in how to go about
planning a trip like this,
or planning things like this into their vacations.
Planning ahead was an important factor in how well the trip turned out for me.
So I should emphasize that
if you have to travel across the country for a trip like this,
do your homework ahead of time.
Table of Contents
The "inspiration" to take this trip came at the beginning of 1997
when I realized I had frequent flyer miles expiring at the end of
the year.
Though I can find plenty of vacation destinations
in or near my home state of California (like backpacking in
Yosemite),
frequent flyer miles meant
it was time to think of somewhere much farther away.
Anyone who knows me wouldn't be surprised about this.
It didn't take long to get the idea of watching a shuttle launch.
With the decision made on what to do, I started looking through the
Shuttle
Missions List to try to pick some candidates to begin planning around.
I soon found the
STS-86 crew's
personal web page
where they posted personal accounts of their training each week.
Since that seemed like the closest I was going to get to meeting
any crew whom I could watch launch, I decided that STS-86 was
my first choice.
And to keep my vacation scheduling somewhere in the same ballpark,
I chose STS-87 as my second choice.
The planning got to be quite a bit of work at one point leading up to the
trip. I got the feeling, as I
juggled the schedule based on launch date changes and
pondered over information about
air fares, hotels, Orlando, Central Florida,
places to see and things to do,
that I was almost on a mission to somewhere.
That was when I nicknamed the trip, the "Mission to Cape Canaveral."
(It sure sounds better than "my Florida vacation" anyway.)
Unforeseen events made it more difficult to plan a trip to watch
STS-86 than many other shuttle launches.
STS-86 was the
seventh of nine
planned missions to dock with
the Russian Space Station Mir.
About a week after I requested the "car pass" to watch the STS-86 launch,
there was a
collision
between Mir and one of its Progress supply ships
on June 25, which seriously damaged the station and depressurized one
of its modules.
And just after the collision I got my confirmation from NASA
that a car pass to watch STS-86 would be sent to me a few weeks
before launch.
Because of the collision,
suddenly everything was in doubt. The plans to repair Mir began to take
shape and, with it, changes were made in the STS-86 plans to accomodate them.
NASA
added a crew member
and announced 1-2 weeks of delays in the STS-86 launch
to accomodate last-minute specialized training he would need.
I understood that the problems they were dealing with
were serious
and mine weren't, in comparison.
But since I would only have 2 weeks of vacation to spare,
I had to wait on buying my airline tickets
until they set a firmer launch date.
So my scheduling problems were significant to me.
Before the trip I was busy watching the news, making plans and
considering contingency plans.
The strangeness of this situation didn't completely register until after
I got back.
There I was with my vacation plans set in disarray because of...
a collision between two spacecraft?
Just the thought is so bizzare.
Even though we all know better,
it seemed like the 21st century must have snuck
up on us and already arrived.
This had to be the first vacation of the 21st century.
I'm still writing this. Please see the parts that are here and
check back for more as I add them.
I started with the launch photos but each line in the table
will get at least a small page with something about
that subject or day.
A page about the trip planning is making good progress
but taking longer than expected.
Expect more details to be filled in during March.
Dates on this page are in American month/day/year format.
| Planning the Trip
(new 12/13/97, updated 12/14/97) |
| About STS-86
(new 11/22/97, updated 1/31/98) |
| Day 1 |
September 23 |
Tuesday |
Enroute to Orlando (new 11/23/97)
1 picture |
| Day 2 |
September 24 |
Wednesday |
Visit to AMSAT's Phase-3D Lab (new 11/23/97)
13 pictures |
| Day 3 |
September 25 |
Thursday |
STS-86 Launch Day (new 10/5/97, updated 12/14/97)
14 pictures |
| Day 4 |
September 26 |
Friday |
"Day Off from the Vacation" |
| Day 5 |
September 27 |
Saturday |
Disney Day 1 |
| Day 6 |
September 28 |
Sunday |
Coast to Coast (Tampa and Cape Canaveral) |
| Day 7 |
September 29 |
Monday |
Disney Day 2 |
| Day 8 |
September 30 |
Tuesday |
Disney Day 3 |
| Day 9 |
October 1 |
Wednesday |
Sarasota Day 1 |
| Day 10 |
October 2 |
Thursday |
Sarasota Day 2 |
| Day 11 |
October 3 |
Friday |
Disney Day 4 |
| Day 12 |
October 4 |
Saturday |
Back to Silicon Valley |
| Revision History
(new 11/29/97, updated 1/31/98) |
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by Ian Kluft
<ikluft@thunder.sbay.org>