In early February, I accompanied my friends to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch a space shuttle launch and get a special tour. Finally, we got to the real reason for our trip. The Solar Dynamics Observatory was about to be launched into space where it can study the sun in incredible detail.

Click to see how much information Little SDO will send us!

So I got together with my new friends, the Space Tweeps, and we went to a special viewing area to watch SDO blast off on an Atlas V rocket. And we waited. And we waited. Aaaaaand we waited.

Looking at Little SDO in the distance

And finally…. the launch got canceled. Not again! It was too windy to launch a rocket. Bummer. But that meant I got to hang out in Florida for one more day, as they would try and launch the rocket again the next day.

As we waited on Friday, our last chance to see the launch, we took a tour of the Apollo/Saturn V center. The Apollo program of the 1960s sent the first humans to the surface of the Moon on top of a large Saturn V rocket. One of these rockets was never launched and has been put on display for everyone to see. Nicole and I walked along the length of the largest rocket in the world, and we made a video just for you!

The time came once more to wait for the launch of the Atlas V carrying SDO. We huddled together against the wind, but finally, there was a break in the weather. We had liftoff! The rocket roared away from the launch pad, slowly at first, then faster and faster as it went to deliver SDO to its orbit. Along the way, we got a really cool sight:

George caught this amazing shot of the rocket

There was a small rainbow, called a sundog, high in the clouds on this sunny day. The rocket actually pierced through these clouds The soundwaves from the rocket actually made these cool waves in the clouds, which destroyed the rainbow! It was an unexpected and wonderful surprise.

With SDO safely on its way to do new science, I said goodbye to my wonderful new friends and came back to see my friends in Virginia. But I will never forget the awesome experiences I had watching our space program at work!

After the successful launch of the space shuttle Endeavor, my friends and I got to take a VIP tour of the Kennedy Space Center. (VIP means Very Important Person, or Very Important Panther, in my case!)

Hanging out with our NASA guide, Aleya, and my new mascot friends, Timmy from Thinkgeek and Camilla the SDO chicken.

Nicole, George, and Aleya were here for the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. Camilla is SDO’s best buddy, and was excited to see the little robot satellite go, even if she was sad. SDO will take really detailed pictures of the sun, so we can learn more about how it works and how it affects Earth. Watch the video below to see!

The VIPs hopped onto a tour bus to see all the cool things around the Kennedy Space Center. We got a closer view of the shuttle launch pads just days after the shuttle launch that we saw!

I show off all my cool space pins with George and Nicole

Many of the structures at the Kennedy Space Center have been around since the 1960s when NASA sent astronauts to the Moon on the huge Saturn V rocket. A big rocket needs a REALLY big building, like the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. This is the largest one-story building in the world. It’s almost four times the height of the Empire State Building in New York! Today, the space shuttle is connected to its huge external tank and rockets inside. This building is a part of spaceflight history and present, and it was so overwhelming to stand near it.

Camilla and I, hanging out. She has a pretty new spacesuit because she wants to be an astronaut, too!

Spending time at the VAB with my new space-tweep buddy, Brian.

After our tour, we were all geared up to see another launch, that of Camilla’s buddy, SDO. Hooray for more rockets!

Hey, kids! Pluto Little Dippy here, and boy do I have a fun trip to tell you about. Back in February 2010, I was lucky enough to tag along on a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is from here that NASA launches astronauts into SPACE! I was going to see my very first launch of a space shuttle with my UVa buddies, Nicole and George, our NASA guide Aleya, and some new friends we met called the “Space Tweeps.”

Aleya, George, and I celebrate our arrival to Florida after a long, long drive!

The space shuttle Endeavor was about to go on a mission to the International Space Station, a big satellite orbiting around the Earth where some astronauts live and work for months at a time. Wow, I wish I could have that job! They do all kinds of experiments to test how humans can live in space for long periods of time, so that one day we can go to Mars, and beyond. They do science experiments that help us with life on Earth, like testing medicines and vaccines. They also have a really cool view of the Earth. This view would look even cooler with the new window bay, called a cupola, that the astronauts in the space shuttle were about to deliver.

In the very early hours of Sunday, February 7th, we squished into a few cars and headed to see the space shuttle launch from a few miles away. There were so many people! Everyone was excited to see the shuttle blast off in the wee, dark hours of the morning. But just after 4am, after we shivered for hours in the cold night, the launch was canceled because of some low clouds. We’d have to do it all again the next night!

George, Nicole, and I are pretty optimistic, despite the cold! The little light between their heads is the shuttle, waiting to go!

Pretty pretty shuttle pic by George.

The next night, we finally got our chance. The crowds were smaller, and the weather threatened to cancel the launch once more. But then the clouds cleared, and the astronauts were ready to go! At 4:14am, as we excitedly counted down, the rockets roared to life and we felt the whole world rumble as it got as bright as day. The astronauts were going into space! It was so beautiful. Silly Nicole, she even cried a little.

Nicole took this picture with her cell phone!

As the shuttle got dimmer and dimmer, we waved our last goodbyes to the hardworking astronauts and packed up our things to go back to the hotel. However, my fun trip with new friends was only just beginning…

See what we saw! Click on this awesome video of the launch by Aleya.
(Look for me tucked inside Nicole’s coat while’s she’s jumping up and down!)

Well, we’re finally back online after the ‘Great Server Attack of ’10,’ which decimated our previous blog. We DSBK! mascots have been busy since our blog was last updated — traveling not only across the US, but to Taiwan and to Sardinia. Our paws are quite busy typing it all up for you.

Look for more posts soon!