Lee Note 93 Boeing Story from Renee Casey August 23, 2001

Kay, I just experienced a great day here at work. I thought someone else might like to hear about it.

Yesterday, here at Boeing, we received an email saying the shuttle, because of the weather related wave-off at the Cape, would pass over Houston at 1:05 p.m. So after lunch everyone is standing in the heat, fighting for shady spots looking at the west at 45 degrees up from the horizon. All these engineers were discussing just where west was and how much up 45 degrees was, etc. - I told them they looked like a bunch of Nazis waving their arms around!!!

They also said it would be an orange star moving across the sky. I asked when did they paint it orange? "No dear, that's the friction of the shuttle against the plasma of the earth's atmosphere as it enters earth orbit, heating up the plasma to a bazillion degrees and causing the glow of fire.

Remember the tiles?". "Oh, sure, I forgot that part", I said, nodding scientifically.

Finally at 1:10, with no shuttle sighted, people began to drift away. But I stayed because I thought it might be late or something. That also drew laughs, "What do you think this is? Continental or Southwest Airlines!!"

Behind me I heard this small male voice say (respectfully, I might add) "Oh, it's over Mississippi by now, but wait for the sonic boom. It will sound in 1 minute, 15 seconds." By the time I turned around and spoke a few words to this tiny East Indian man, he said to me "listen now, here it is". Sure enough, we heard the boom. It was unbelievable that he was absolutely accurate.

Well, I filed in behind all the others, walked over to the TV monitor on the wall and WATCHED IT LAND IN FLORIDA!!!! From Houston to the Cape in 19 minutes, traveling 2.5 times the speed of sound - AFTER the De-orbit Burn.

Ain't science grand!?!

Renee Casey Rabke