[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                EMILY LANCE HAS A BLAST AT SPACE CENTER

   Mr. MILLER. Mr. President, today I share with my colleagues 
the thoughts of Emily Lance, an 8-year-old third grader at Calhoun 
Elementary School, who had the privilege of watching the launch of the 
Space Shuttle Columbia:

       We left at 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, Jan. 14, to see the 
     Space Shuttle launch. But first we had to get there. It was a 
     10-hour drive. We were staying at the Hilton.
       Before we could get to the hotel, we had to go through 
     security because the Israeli ambassador and the astronauts' 
     families were staying there. Finally, we got to the room. 
     Then we found our bathing suits and went out to the beach.
       That's when we saw the horse patrol. They were very pretty 
     horses. We found a lot of shells at the beach. Then we went 
     back to our room, had dinner, and went to bed.
       We woke up early and went to the Kennedy Space Center. We 
     checked in the protocol office and got our mission briefing 
     passes. Then we had to go through NASA security.
       Going to the briefing wasn't all we did. First we checked 
     out the Rocket Garden. It was huge and had replicas of the 
     rockets that went into space.
       Then it was time for the briefing. First we got our seats. 
     There were a lot of people. The briefing was very 
     interesting.
       They announced that the shuttle was to go off at 10:39 
     Thursday morning. I learned a lot at the briefing.
       After the briefing we went to the Mad Mission to Mars. It 
     was 3-D and so cool. They called for volunteers, and I was 
     picked. I was chosen to be the planet Venus. Then we were 
     blasting off to Mars. Then it was the end of the show. After 
     that we went to eat.
       Then we got to see a movie called ``The Dream Is Alive.'' I 
     liked it very much. Then it was time to go back to the hotel. 
     But before we did, I got to go get Space Dots. That is ice 
     cream in little balls, also known as Dipping Dots.
       Then it was time to go home after a great day at the 
     Kennedy Space Center. I couldn't wait until tomorrow. It was 
     going to be awesome.
       After dinner I had to go to bed early. We had to get up at 
     5 in the morning. On the way to Kennedy Space Center, we 
     stopped at Waffle House to get some breakfast.
       When we got there we went to the Protocol Office and got 
     our bus passes so we could get to the grandstand.
       While we were standing in line, we met this man who works 
     at NASA in California. He was really excited, too. Then I 
     noticed he had a really cool necklace and on it was the word 
     NASA. It also had a blue flashing light.
       I told him it was really cool. Then he asked me if I really 
     liked it. I said yes, then he gave it to me. I was so happy.
       After that, he showed me his official NASA badge. Then we 
     got on the bus. It was a 10-minute ride to the grandstand.
       When we got there we picked seats on the top row. You could 
     see the Launch Pad perfectly. It was a long time until the 
     shuttle went off so I went in the Saturn Building and watched 
     a movie.
       It was about the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong walked 
     the first few steps on the moon in the Apollo mission. Then I 
     had to go sit down.
       The shuttle was about to go off. At 9 minutes the countdown 
     stopped. Then it started again. At 1 minute until it 
     launched, I was so excited. When it got to 10 seconds, we all 
     went 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
       Then it happened. It was so awesome. It was like an 
     earthquake. The ground shook, and the noise sounded like an 
     explosion.
       It lasted about two minutes, then it was gone. It was 
     already in space. It can go around the world in 90 minutes.
       Then we got back on the bus. When we got back to the Space 
     Center, we went to see a 3-D movie called ``The Space 
     Station.'' The space station is a place where astronauts can 
     go and live.
       Then we went home after our last day at the Kennedy Space 
     Center. So ends my wonderful space vacation.

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