July 12, 2005
Today, my wife, Nancy, my daughter, Jessica, and I flew down to Orlando in advance of tomorrow’s planned launch of the Space Shuttle, STS-114, with UA aerospace engineering alumnus Jim “Vegas” Kelly serving as pilot. I had the pleasure of having Jim as a student in three graduate classes during the period 1994-96 while he was in our master’s graduate program at UA. At that time he was an Air Force test pilot in Nevada. Since I am also a pilot, albeit much slower aircraft than he flies, we hit it off very well and have remained in close contact ever since.
Jim was an exceptionally capable grad student and is now a very distinguished alumnus of our program. Because of his experience in the flight test world, he brought an unusual level of maturity to the classes that he took through our distance learning program at the University. Even though he was a distance learning student, we maintained very close ties while he was in my courses. He was working a full-time job as a test pilot, maintaining his family life and excelling in all his classes through UA. Many weekends he would call me on Saturday morning to discuss material in the courses that he was in at the time. I remember well some of the discussions because he contributed so much due to the wealth of experience that he brought from the Air Force flight test world. I can also remember hearing his children in the background, clinking spoons on cereal bowls!
Subsequently he was selected for Astronaut training, became an Astronaut, and flew his first mission as Shuttle pilot in 2001. I was honored to be one of his guests for that launch also. I especially recall from that launch meeting Jim’s wife, Dawn, and his mother at a pre-launch reception hosted by Dawn. It was a pleasure to meet many of the people who had helped to shape his life, including one of his elementary school teachers from Burlington, Iowa.
Nancy, Jessica and I arrived at Orlando International at 3:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday, 12 July, on Southwest Airlines while a thunderstorm was within five miles of the airport, which necessitated a halt to all ramp activity at the airport. Our aircraft had to just sit on the ramp for over 30 minutes because the aircraft already at our gate could not be pushed back during this ramp halt. Once the lightning activity had moved on beyond the five-mile radius of the airport, ramp activity resumed and we were on our way.
When we arrived at our hotel in Altamonte Springs, Fla., at 6:00 p.m., I learned from Dr. Gregg Buckingham, NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Education Director, that “at about 5 p.m. today during routine closeouts at the launch pad, the cover of Discovery’s window number seven, one of the overhead crew cabin windows, fell about 65 feet and hit a carrier panel on the left Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod, damaging several tiles.” The tiles were on a single carrier panel, which fits over the area. A spare carrier panel was taken to the pad and used to replace the damaged panel. The replacement procedure took about an hour to complete. Fortunately, the replacement procedure was quickly completed and the launch on Wednesday will not be impacted as a result.
Wednesday morning we start our day at a breakfast on Merritt Island hosted by Jim’s wife, Dawn, and their four children. The launch is scheduled for 3:51 p.m. EDT. Nancy, Jessica and I are naturally excited to be Jim’s guests for the launch. This will be Nancy’s first opportunity to witness a Shuttle launch; Jessica was able to join me in 2001 for Jim’s first launch on STS-102. This will be my seventh launch viewing since the early 1990s. Jessica had come with me once in the late 1990s for a launch, but that particular launch was delayed twice and we were forced to return home prior to the launch. Although I have enjoyed all previous launches, sharing the experience in 2001 with my daughter and knowing that the pilot was Jim Kelly made that one particularly meaningful. Now the opportunity to view this upcoming launch with both Nancy and Jessica is even more meaningful. My life is good!
More tomorrow…
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Michael Freeman is an Associate Professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at The University of Alabama. He is attending this week’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery, and will publish daily accounts of the events surrounding the shuttle’s “return to flight” launch. UA graduate James Kelly is the pilot of STS-114, NASA’s first space flight in over two years. Dr. Freeman may be reached by e-mail at michael.freeman@ua.edu.