by E. J. Michaels
My daughter and I stepped outside into a bright crisp
February morning. The birds were
noisily going about their normal feeding routines; the sun had just cleared the
horizon. As we began our short walk
I noticed the sky overhead was very blue with only a little ground fog obscuring
the low spots. Our destination was
a treeless clear cut near our country home, my favorite location for peering
through the atmosphere to the universe beyond. Down a creek and up the other side we
started down an old abandoned railroad bed. Again the crispness of the morning was
evident with a white coating of frost covering the ground in the open
areas. Leaving the railroad bed we
crossed through a patch of woods and began a short climb up an old logging
road. We were both dragging a
little bit, our work week was more hectic than usual and we were both looking
forward to sleeping in this weekend; but not this morning. The space shuttle
The sky suddenly opens as we leave the woods. A quick survey reveals only a narrow low
fog bank obscuring the southern horizon.
Most of the sky was a sparkling clear blue, illuminated by the low
eastern sun. Three crows perched in
the upper branches of a large leafless post oak tree were keeping us under
surveillance. We focused our
binoculars on the distant tree line in preparation for the over flight. I had not obtained beforehand the exact
time and direction of the shuttles appearance but using NASA’s ground track map
and knowing the predicted landing time in Florida I estimated an 8:00 am
arrival, give or take 5 minutes. We
began to watch the western horizon intently at
I had previously seen one other shuttle reentry. It occurred shortly after dusk one
December evening and it was so spectacular I decided to never miss another
one. With most shuttle missions now
going to the space station it is rare for us to see a shuttle landing flyover
anymore. Landings for space station
missions usually bring the shuttle in over the
Around
With the contrails slowly dissipating overhead, I slowly
began to walk back to the house.
After a short distance I turned and noticed my daughter had not
followed. She had not moved and was
silently looking at the sky. It was
clear that she understood the magnitude and historical significance of the human
disaster that had just unfolded high above our