by Charles Richard Chappell
It has become my custom when I’m connected with a launch of the shuttle to go out the day before launch to the Kennedy Space Center and be near the vehicle by myself and to sort of commune with the shuttle. It’s something that I have done off and on for the past 10 years beginning with Spacelab 1 in 1983. I usually park on the causeway, which is the place where the public typically views a shuttle launch, and take a long run with the shuttle in view. It’s cleansing to me to exert myself and to be exhilarated by the exercise and at the same time to be exhilarated by being with the shuttle. It gives me a chance to celebrate the shuttle and what it means in the exploration of space.
This particular day I parked near the bridge on the causeway and ran to the west into the afternoon Sun. When I got to the end of the causeway I turned north on Static Test Road which is something that I had never done in the past. I had my Walkman and was listening to the music from the movie, The Blue Planet. This music is full of the feelings of space and the appreciation of the beauty of nature on the Earth as viewed from space.
As I ran down Static Test Road to the north, I gradually moved away from the sounds of the traffic on the causeway road and into the sounds of nature. There was a little canal
near the road which was full of egrets, cranes, and an occasional spoonbill and alligator. Along the road side in the grass between the road and the canal there were quite a few armadillos. I would pass an armadillo every couple of blocks as I ran. This area is typical of the magic of the Kennedy Space Center, in which there is a unique combination of the beauty of nature and the beauty of technology superimposed on each other in a non-threatening and compatible way.
As I ran north on Static Test Road, I realized that I was running directly toward pad 39A, the pad on which the space shuttle Atlantis was awaiting launch the next day. The rotating surface structure had been rolled back and I could see the Orbiter, External Tank, the Solid Rocket Boosters – the great white bird as it has been called. I was about 5 miles away from it when I began. The road was generally straight but had a few turns, and as I ran the shuttle would come in and out of view over the scrubby bushes and palm trees which are typical of that area of the Center. As I ran, I kept passing armadillos. They were rooting around the ground, kinda hunkered down, worrying about where they were going to find the next grub that they could eat. They were amazingly oblivious and unaware of my passing by. They were concerned not about what was going on around them, only about their next meal. Even the ones right at the side of the road where I was just a few feet away didn’t even look up as I ran by.
I continued to run and with each step drew nearer to the shuttle. After a couple of miles, the Vehicle Assembly Building rather than being in the distance ahead was now off to my left and the Titan Assembly building and the Titan Launch pads which typically had seemed to be way out ahead of me were now to my right and I realized that I was getting closer and closer to the shuttle which was still directly ahead down Static Test Road. The road went from two lanes with broad shoulders to a much narrower road and eventually to one lane. The beauty and comforting quiet of nature continued to increase as I moved farther and farther into the back areas.
I thought as I ran toward the shuttle that the whole experience had been sort of a microcosm of what had happened to me over the past 7 years when I had trained to fly on the shuttle. During that training, I had come from a distant knowledge and awareness of the shuttle to a very intimate feeling about it, understanding the details of how it is inside, what have to do to be a passenger and to live on the shuttle. I had even reached the point of getting strapped into the shuttle on the launch pad during the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, which is a dress rehearsal of the launch itself. This day’s run in which I got nearer and nearer to the shuttle was representative of the way in which I had gotten nearer the shuttle over these past years. And yet as close as I was that day and as close as I had gotten over the years I was still not on the crew, I was not on the spacecraft, I was not going to fly the next morning; there was still some distance to go.
After running for quite some time, with the road still continuing into the distance, I felt that I was far enough away from things that I could share the quiet with the shuttle. I stopped running and stood for probably 5 to 10 minutes staring at Atlantis, almost transfixed. I felt a connection to it, a connection to the crew that it would carry the next day, and a deeply personal connection to the mission that it represented. It was difficult to turn away. I think I could have stood there for hours. The sounds were only of an occasional rustling in the trees as the wind blew, the sounds of an armadillo that was grubbing around in the grass near where I stood, and an occasional egret — it was a very special time.
After some minutes I felt that I should turn back and I found that it was difficult to turn away from the shuttle. I would turn and walk 10 or 20 steps and then stop and turn back and look at it again, appreciating its beauty and feeling the significance of what it means for the United States and the world. The shuttle represents our country’s reaching out and creating, and together with the rest of the space program, it represents the best of America’s accomplishments.
Finally I began to run again. Filled with the vision of the shuttle and the emotion of space exploration I asked myself, “why is it that America should spend money to realize people’s dreams of exploring space.” I answered intellectually to myself that of course it’s because investments in space exploration drive people to create, to generate new technologies that are important to the country because they lead to products that we can sell abroad. Clearly these investments are good for the economy and they pay for themselves many times over.
Continuing to run, I passed another armadillo and as I looked up, and I saw an eagle. I was struck by the contrast of their different approaches to life. Where the armadillo never looks up, is concentrating only on its next meal, and is oblivious of the world passing it by, the eagle soars quietly and majestically. It is not rooting around in the ground, but it is striving for the high ground, seeking a vantage point from which it can see the horizon and beyond. It is reaching out and flying in difficult places. Its vision is never limited.
I was reminded that America should explore space because America is not about armadillos, America is about eagles. America is about broad visions, about looking up and looking out, about flying high and flying free, about creating, about doing things because they are hard, about reaching out to lead in new places, and about drawing out the best of our talents to accomplish our dreams.
America is about eagles.
