For every shuttle launch, NASA Langley employees are offered the opportunity to see the launch from on NASA Kennedy's center grounds. For the STS-128 night launch, I got a pass to go. I could take 6 people with me so I asked Bob, Friend of Survivor, and Bob's sister to see if they wanted to go. We filled up really quickly! I would have loved to take a full bus but am glad, now, that I didn't.

We got to the causeway (right across the water from the launchpad - beautiful view) at 11:00 pm. Then we waited since it was scheduled to go at 1:36 AM. Then we waited again. The weather was really getting bad, but we were trying to optimistic those clouds and that lightning away. It didn't work. The launch was scrubbed around 1:20 AM Tuesday. The 2 (TWO!) hour drive back to our vehicles only took about 45 minutes before. Bob & I didn't get back to our hotel room until around 4:00 AM and check out time was 11:00, so we only got about 5-6 hours of sleep. The launch was rescheduled for ~24 hours later (1:10 AM on Wednesday) so Bob & I decided to spend another night and vacation day to try again - everyone else was on board as well.

Just our luck - that launch was scrubbed as well. At least we found out at 7:15 PM instead of late at night/early in the morning. We called everyone to cancel (another good thing about the limitation of guests) and decided to drive back home that night. 12 hours later and we got home at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. Not wanting to burn vacation time, I went straight to work. Eight hours of a boring task in a warm room made my day hard to live through.

I am so glad that we decided not to go since the launch is now scheduled for Friday (we aren't going). It would have been neat, but I'm okay not being able to experience it. Bob & I have seen quite a few launches from afar as well as really pretty close (on a jetty close to NASA Kennedy) when we lived in Orlando.

I was really worried about the lack of sleep schedule that I have trained my mind and body to adhere. No problem for the most part. Bob & I need to clean up our sleep hygiene to get back on track for good daily rest, but my brain handled it really pretty well.