Childhood Memories of Watching a NASA Rocket Lift-off

My memory is that I was always very excited about an impending launch for the Mercury missions. They were usually early in the morning, as I remember, and I would hunker down in front of the black-and-white TV. My wristwatch was as synchronized as I could get it. My ten-year-old heart would race a bit as I imagined being in the capsule.

Although no-one had yet died in a launch mis-fire, it was always tense. There was no guarantee that the countdown would continue on schedule. And it was obvious that some poor person was sitting on top of a lot of explosive material.

Splash-down gave me more worries, but that would be another memory...

The truly amazing moments started with the 10-second countdown. I think I held my breath while the tension mounted.

I'm sure I wanted to hold my breath as long as the rocket engines were firing. I believe it is about 3 minutes from "ignition and blast-off" to "MECO" (Main Engine Cut-Off). That's the acceleration phase, when the astronauts are subjected to G forces. I wanted, so much, to share the experience.

Well, that's the childhood memory I had wanted to share.

I was also a big fan of Star Trek (yes, the "Kirk, Spock and McCoy" original...as well as every version since).

While William Shatner did host a show about how he changed our universe, I wanted to comment about just two changes that NASA made in real life.

(1) I am absolutely convinced that the shuttle was named "Enterprise" for the Star Trek reference more than for the US navy's USS Enterprise.

(2) Nichelle Nichol, who played Lt. Uhura in classic Star Trek, was asked about NASA's intentions to hire women and visible minorities as astronauts. Since all the American 1960s astronauts were white men, Nichelle said something like "To have any credibility, you would need someone who fit that profile to recruit those new people". The reply was, "So you want the job?" She did indeed go on to change the face of the astronaut cadre. Bravo and well done, Nichelle.