back in July I went to NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida
to watch a SpaceX launch
I got to go as part of NASA social which
is a program by NASA to bring people who
are active on social media to events
like launches to share their experiences
in their social media feed, which is what
I did, and if you follow me on Twitter or
on Instagram you've probably seen some
photos and videos that I posted from my
trip. But in a nutshell it was an
emotional roller coaster mostly because
of the weather. When I got to Florida the
weather was terrible because there was a
tropical depression forming off the
coast just threatening this launch from
the beginning.
I'm in Florida, I am in
Cape Canaveral, I've been here for a few
days now and the weather has been dicey.
So the launch has been rescheduled for
the 24th, and I leave on the 25th so if
it doesn't happen on Wednesday that's it
for me, I will have missed the launch.
First day of NASA Social! I'm all checked in
I'm about to get on this bus and
here's all the other people in my group
We're so excited!
The first day of the
NASA social event was a tour of Kennedy
Space Center and we got to see areas
that are usually restricted and not open
to the general public. We even got to see
the launch pads up close, including
launch pad 40 which is the launch pad
that SpaceX was launching from the next
day.
So when we got there, the rocket was on
its side on the launch pad, and we saw
SpaceX employees bustling around getting
the rocket ready for launch.
I'm at launch pad 40 and you can see behind me, on its side
is the Falcon 9 rocket that they're gonna launch tomorrow
I just can't
believe I'm standing here.
We also got to see launch pad 39b
which was the launch
pad for a lot of shuttle missions and
then we got to see launch pad 39a which
was the launch pad for a lot of Saturn 5
missions including Apollo 11
and it was
extra special because this was just a
couple of days after the Apollo moon
landing anniversary and I just couldn't
believe I was so close to the actual
launch pad that Apollo 11 launched from
50 years ago. After we saw the launch
pads they took us to see the VAB:
the Vehicle Assembly Building and this
building is famously known as the
largest one-story building in the world,
the American flag on the side of it is
the biggest American flag in the world
I think the stars are like six feet across each
We are touring the VAB right now and I just I can't believe what I'm seeing.
There are things in here that are
still here from the Saturn 5 program and
there's a mock-up of the Orion and we're
walking into a high bay now, this is crazy
I was expecting it to be like a hangar inside I was kind of expecting like a giant
empty space but it wasn't really like
that at all. The first thing you notice
when you walk inside the VAB is
scaffolding everywhere and platforms
basically built up around the shape of
a rocket and these are platforms and
infrastructure that's in place to allow
them to work on rockets there so it's
almost like the building is a skeleton
built around the shape of a rocket and
they can roll the rocket in, tilt it
upright, work on it in place, and then
roll it out on the crawler, which is
another gigantic piece of machinery that
we got to see. It just gave me goosebumps
to stand inside the VAB, I mean, just to
look around and see the evidence
and marks of all of this incredibly
historic work it was just mind-blowing.
basically I didn't want to leave but
eventually they kicked us out of the VAB
and we got to see some other cool stuff
so behind me you can see the pathway
that the crawler takes to take a vehicle to the launchpad
and if you look closely you can see it's actually river rock, about golf ball sized river rock,
and apparently it's river rock and granite rock to about eight feet down
and now they're telling us we have
to get on the bus
because we have a lightning warning. Alright bye.
After that amazing tour I was so excited
to see the rocket launch the next day
but when I woke up in the morning
the weather was not good
I just drove here
from Cocoa Beach about 20 minutes ago
and a drove through the most insane
thunder and lightning storm
I've ever had to drive through
so we're here at the viewing
site for our NASA Social group
and I want to point out to you boys what
see from here because it's pretty cool
so all the way on the right there is the
VAB that's the Vehicle Assembly Building
that we got to walk in yesterday,
directly behind us is Launchpad 40 with
the SpaceX rocket on it, it's loaded, it's
upright, apparently it has been fueled,
and it's ready to go in 30 minutes
further to the right is landing zone 1
from here it looks like a tiny skinny
tower and that is where the booster is
going to land about 8 minutes or so
after the rocket is launched
we're about four minutes out
from launch and the weather does not look good
good there are some raindrops coming
down now and currently we are no-go but
SpaceX is going to take this to the very
limit they've decided they're gonna
count down until t-minus 30 seconds and
make the call then. So it's not looking good
but we are crossing our fingers
(Announcer: Hold, hold, hold on countdown one.)
That launch was scrubbed at 30 seconds.
So the launch was just scrubbed and
we're gonna head out and I'm really
really bummed. I hope I still get to see
a launch one day I'm gonna try again, so
thanks for coming on this journey.
So then as I was leaving the viewing site I
had this huge decision to make
SpaceX scheduled another launch attempt
for the next day but I was scheduled to
fly out the next day, like most of the
people in my group, and I had to decide
whether I was going to change all my
travel plans and pay some extra money
and stay another day to see if the
rocket would launch. The weather forecast
for the next day was exactly the same. It
was 30% go for launch
which is 70% chance no launch
so I kind of had to take a leap of faith
Guess what I'm still in Florida so after
the rocket launch was scrubbed yesterday
I was so bummed but I rallied and I
rearranged all my travel plans I'm
staying for one more day so I get to go
back with NASA social and see if this
rocket launches today and I'll be honest
with you the weather today is exactly
the same as it was yesterday in fact
it's been raining all morning. All right
we're back for Day two attempt number
two at this launch and the weather seems
a bit calmer today
I think the forecast was upgraded to a
50% go for launch so hopefully we're
gonna have a rocket launch from right
between these two buildings here.
We're about 10 minutes out from launch and it looks pretty good right here but they
are telling us there is a weather
concern there are some large gray clouds
over by the VAB but hopefully they'll
stay over by the VAB and we'll see this
rocket launch
we were watching from the NASA causeway
which is less than three miles away from
the launch pad but even at that distance
it looks like the rocket is lifting up
in slow motion and then this beam just
radiates out from the bottom of it and
the exhaust from the rocket is so bright
I had this moment where I asked myself
if it was safe to look at this bright
light because it reminded me of a welding arc
and then the sound just hits
you
(rocket launch sound)
and then it changes over time it starts
to rumble and crackle and it sounds like
it's coming from all around you
(rocket launch sound gets louder)
and of course it's a SpaceX launch it's
a falcon 9 so the booster is coming back down
and we knew we had about eight
minutes before it came back so we're
looking up at the sky I really like
where is it where is it
(voices shouting: Oh there it is!)
and I was so distracted by watching the
booster landing upright that even though
I knew that sonic booms were coming they
caught me completely by surprise
that was something I'll never forget and I'm
just so grateful that I got to see it
and I'm so glad that I stuck it out and
I booked that extra day I almost didn't
do it and it was amazing to see that in
person it was a bucket list item and now
that I've done it I am adding it right
back to my bucket list because I really
want to go back and see it again and if
you ever have the chance to view a
launch in person I highly recommend it
in fact if you want to apply for the
NASA social program I'll put a link in
the description of this video to where
you can apply it is a totally amazing
experience and I'm so glad I got to meet
all the people in my group they all came
from different walks of life
they had different reasons for being
interested in space exploration and I
learned a lot from them so that's all
I've got for this video I'll be back
next time making something thanks so
much for watching bye
they let us keep our badges and they
gave us astronaut ice cream space food
space food
it can't make you fat cuz it's
developed for weightlessness
powdery ooh
It's like an ice cream cracker. It's not the
worst thing I've ever eaten
Ice cream flavored chalk. Maybe I like it,
or maybe it's gross?
Do you want some astronaut ice cream?
