Dreamlog, Stardate 52710.3
Today, I went into space. No seriously, I did, and it was awesome. And affordable - $623.80 for a ticket to lower earth orbit and back.
We took off from Boston. Not sure what we were doing there, but I was trying to get a hold of an old high school friend - who for some reason was still in high school, living with her parents, only she wasn't actually in school. Anyway, I don't know why Jamie and I were in Boston, but we were, and while I was there, I decided to go into space. So I bought a ticket for that day's flight.
The inside of the shuttle looked pretty much like the inside of a plane, only without the over head storage. There were two seats on each side of the isle, and they were nice and comfy. Everything was beige. We took off like a plane did, and flew around Boston for a while, until the boosters kicked in, shaking the shuttle for a bit until they got settled.
With the boosters on, we headed out of the city and continued to accelerate, although we were still flying along the earths surface. We passed over a nascar track where everyone waved, happy to see a shuttle still flying. We then headed out over a desert-y type area, past a big brick testing facility.
While we were doing this, I was chatting with my passengers, and the flight master came around and took our tickets, ala Amtrak. Not really sure what he would have done if we hadn't had the tickets - it's not like we could get out, although we weren't exactly far off the ground - we were just going really fast at this point.
Then, all of a sudden, we were in space. I remember thinking I must have blacked out, because I didn't remember getting there, but there we were, floating around. Sadly, we were almost at the end of our time there, and had to get ready for re-entry - this made me sad, since it meant I had been blacked out for most of the awesome part of the trip. But the view was beautiful. You could see the horizon of the earth, and some of the atmospheric effects, since we were just outside the atmosphere. The curve of the earth was prominent, although I can't remember seeing much of the earth proper - the windows in the shuttle weren't all that large. But as we got ready to start our descent, I remember seeing the International Space Station behind us, and I was sad that I didn't get to see us pass it, as evidently they waved to us.
We started our descent, and I was a bit worried - motion sickness and whatnot. Never very good with Rollercoasters. I asked one of the other passengers if the descent was going to be bad, and they said no, not really. This was their second flight, although she had another one planned - she was an elected official of some sort (small) and there was a flight for politicians only at some point she was going to be on.
The shuttle started to shake as we entered the atmosphere again, and I must have blacked out again. When I woke up we were on the ground, on some road out in the desert again. I tried to hold on to the things I had seen while in space, and not let them slip away like a dream. But there was a part of me that wasn't even sure it had actually happened - it was so brief and wonderful.
People were getting off but I'm not sure where they were going. I got up and out of the shuttle, where Jamie met me. I was just off the shuttle when I realized I left my shoes on the shuttle - not sure why I took them off in the first place. One of the attendants had found them, however, and brought them to the front where I picked them up.
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Waking up from this dream was disheartening, because I know I'll never get to go into space, and I know it has to be even more beautiful than it is in my dreams. I think part of the prompting for this dream was watching Atlantis land yesterday, the end of the last space mission it'll ever be a part of, and the end of one of the last space shuttle missions ever - we only have two more. I understand why they're canceling the space shuttles, but it makes me sad to think that we're ending such a huge legacy. And that we're, in a lot of respects, further behind capability-wise than we were 40 years ago, despite such huge progress in technology.
We took off from Boston. Not sure what we were doing there, but I was trying to get a hold of an old high school friend - who for some reason was still in high school, living with her parents, only she wasn't actually in school. Anyway, I don't know why Jamie and I were in Boston, but we were, and while I was there, I decided to go into space. So I bought a ticket for that day's flight.
The inside of the shuttle looked pretty much like the inside of a plane, only without the over head storage. There were two seats on each side of the isle, and they were nice and comfy. Everything was beige. We took off like a plane did, and flew around Boston for a while, until the boosters kicked in, shaking the shuttle for a bit until they got settled.
With the boosters on, we headed out of the city and continued to accelerate, although we were still flying along the earths surface. We passed over a nascar track where everyone waved, happy to see a shuttle still flying. We then headed out over a desert-y type area, past a big brick testing facility.
While we were doing this, I was chatting with my passengers, and the flight master came around and took our tickets, ala Amtrak. Not really sure what he would have done if we hadn't had the tickets - it's not like we could get out, although we weren't exactly far off the ground - we were just going really fast at this point.
Then, all of a sudden, we were in space. I remember thinking I must have blacked out, because I didn't remember getting there, but there we were, floating around. Sadly, we were almost at the end of our time there, and had to get ready for re-entry - this made me sad, since it meant I had been blacked out for most of the awesome part of the trip. But the view was beautiful. You could see the horizon of the earth, and some of the atmospheric effects, since we were just outside the atmosphere. The curve of the earth was prominent, although I can't remember seeing much of the earth proper - the windows in the shuttle weren't all that large. But as we got ready to start our descent, I remember seeing the International Space Station behind us, and I was sad that I didn't get to see us pass it, as evidently they waved to us.
We started our descent, and I was a bit worried - motion sickness and whatnot. Never very good with Rollercoasters. I asked one of the other passengers if the descent was going to be bad, and they said no, not really. This was their second flight, although she had another one planned - she was an elected official of some sort (small) and there was a flight for politicians only at some point she was going to be on.
The shuttle started to shake as we entered the atmosphere again, and I must have blacked out again. When I woke up we were on the ground, on some road out in the desert again. I tried to hold on to the things I had seen while in space, and not let them slip away like a dream. But there was a part of me that wasn't even sure it had actually happened - it was so brief and wonderful.
People were getting off but I'm not sure where they were going. I got up and out of the shuttle, where Jamie met me. I was just off the shuttle when I realized I left my shoes on the shuttle - not sure why I took them off in the first place. One of the attendants had found them, however, and brought them to the front where I picked them up.
----
Waking up from this dream was disheartening, because I know I'll never get to go into space, and I know it has to be even more beautiful than it is in my dreams. I think part of the prompting for this dream was watching Atlantis land yesterday, the end of the last space mission it'll ever be a part of, and the end of one of the last space shuttle missions ever - we only have two more. I understand why they're canceling the space shuttles, but it makes me sad to think that we're ending such a huge legacy. And that we're, in a lot of respects, further behind capability-wise than we were 40 years ago, despite such huge progress in technology.