|
| Cruise ship berthed in Port Canaveral. |
Next morning, Wednesday, April 7, I was up before 5 am to do a live radio report to "The Space Show" on Southern FM in Melbourne. At about 6 am, I left and drove to Port Canaveral, meeting the sunrise whilst driving through mist filled wetlands.
Peter Aylward had told me that the shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters would be towed into port that morning. I had my doubts, as it seemed two days was a long time to tow back the boosters from their impact zone north-east of the Kennedy Space Center. Turned out that Peter got his time conversion wrong, and the SRBs had been towed through the day before, one day after the launch.
I put the drive to good use, enjoying a long walk through Jetty Park and along the beach. I got chatting with the gate keeper and, like so many living in the area, it turned out he had had a fascinating career. His was in satellite tracking, and had even included time at Mount St John in New Zealand. He liked New Zealand so much he went back for a holiday. His satellite tracking experience stretched right back to the original pre-Sputnik Smithsonian programme.
Previous page Diary Contents Next Page The Space Show Southern FM
Text, images and audio Copyright to Andrew Rennnie, 2010