 "Photo: Chris Kominczak")
Wallace Fowler, an aerospace engineering professor at UT, said the long-anticipated Atlantis takeoff was so powerful that the ground shook.
"You don't just hear the sound; you feel it in your gut," he said.
After four unsuccessful attempts at watching a space shuttle launch, Fowler finally had the unique opportunity to witness Atlantis take off into orbit from Kennedy Space Center in Florida Friday evening.
The day had just given way to clear conditions after a thunderstorm had dominated most of the afternoon, and all systems were go, Fowler said. Around five hundred individuals waited for the countdown under the Florida sky.
"It went smoothly. The conditions were totally perfect," Fowler said.
According to Fowler's account of the launch, Atlantis was barely visible, hiding behind the rotating service structure that protects the shuttle. A plume of white smoke signaled the main engine had been fired, the solid rocket boosts were lit and the shuttle finally launched, rolling about on a vertical axis. "As it went up, you began to see the engine, which was as bright as the sun," Fowler said. "It left a smoke trail that caused a strange linear shadow across the sky."
Fowler said he held his breath in anticipation, waiting for the rocket boosters to separate successfully, making the journey much safer for the astronauts.
"Two little specks came off the shuttle," Fowler said. "But nothing went wrong."
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