Endeaver

Last week I went to Florida to see the launch of the shuttle Endeaver. Our friend, Heidi Marie Stefanyshyn-Piper (thats her whole name!!! and thats also her up in the picture) is one of the crew members on the shuttle. They called this mission "extreme home improvement", because they are bringing up two "bedrooms" and one "bathroom" to the international space station. One of the crew members is actually staying up there! Heidi will get to make three space walks hopefully while she is up there.

The launch took place at Cape Canaveral, and it literally lit up the whole sky. It looked like the sun as it went up in a ball of fire. It was really interesting, because it was right next to the moon, and it lit it up so you could see it really clearly.

It took a few seconds for the sound to reach us (we were 6.4 miles away!) but it was reallyyyyyy loud. They told us that if you are in one mile of the launch, you die. If you are two miles from the launch, you will be permenantly deaf. If you are three miles, you might suffer short loss of hearing, but it could also be permenant damage. I hope the people who actually live close to it were underground or away.

When we were there they gave us pictures with the original signatures of all the crew members on them! It was really cool. We also got a poster and some pins. Also, we've been getting daily emails from Heidi's husband (Glenn Piper) with pictures that she and the crew have taken and emailed to family.

The shuttle is due to return one day or two days after thanksgiving.