Wednesday, March 9, 2011

An Amazing Day

Wow!  We really had a beautiful day here today in more ways than one.

Of course, it was beautiful because of the weather but that was only part of it. 

One of the most special parts of today happened while I was sitting in carline waiting to pick up our kiddos from school.  They had an early release day today so I was there much earlier than normal.  Miffy, our dog, and I were just sitting in the truck with the windows open and I was talking to the hubby on the phone when it happened.

KABOOM! BOOM!

The sonic boom made by the space shuttle Discovery re-entering the atmosphere before landing at Cape Canaveral.

It gave me chills to hear it and I immediately had to give thanks for their safe return.  Then, I remembered the news from this morning.  They were reporting that Discovery would re-enter the atmosphere over Sarasota at about 11:50 this morning.  Sarasota is about 55 miles from here and yet I got to hear Discovery coming home.  Simply amazing!

Here's a local report about it.

Now, here's something else you might find amazing. 

A few weeks ago, when we visited Kennedy Space Center, we learned that the space shuttle pilots are rather competitive people.  They have had lines painted on the runway so that they can compete in their landings.  Keep in mind that the orbiter is not an airplane.  It does not have engines like a jet to help control its speed at landing.  So, in reality, it is a very big glider.  Therefore, landings are rather difficult. 

Did you know that of the 132 landings (prior to today's return of Discovery), there was only one absolutely perfect landing?  Did you know that perfect landing was made by a woman?  Yep, Eileen Collins.  Pretty cool, don't you think?!?!?!

And, to wrap up a perfect day, we went to church.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Until next time, Happy Creative Time!

2 comments:

Sue aka barracudasue said...

Sounds like an wonderful day! No pun intended! LOL I think that would be SO cool to actually HEAR Discovery re-enter the earth's atmosphere! One of the perks of living in Florida! :D

Have a good one....

Anonymous said...

Ileana, I live in UK and we have the live feed to the command centre at Houston on my DH's PC... we watched in awe yesterday (it is Thursday evening here as I write this) as the shuttle came home - such a special day as it was the last mission. It is fantastic to watch all that is going on on the space station, in real time too, this is technology at it's finest, wish I coulda heard the sonic bangs live!!
Andi