3… 2…1…

Rocket ignition,
thundering sound,
billowing smoke,
shaking ground
Liftoff!

The suddenness and wonder of the sights and sounds poured over all of us as hundreds of visitors in the tower watched the September 8 launch of this spacecraft for the Asteroid Sample Return Mission. We were just 2.3 miles from the launch pad and 50 feet above ground as the blastoff of the huge Atlas V rocket impacted our senses and our emotions.

“God’s speed,” was my verbal prayer – but my voice was drowned out by the rockets’ sound and by everyone shouting their joy and exuberantly applauding this overwhelming experience!

(Photo provided)

I tried to keep my left eye on my iPhone’s screen, recording the launch, while focusing my right eye on the physical sight of the liftoff. What a difference – I couldn’t believe it. In my right eye the reality was not at all like the launch videos and films I had seen before on TV or theatre screens!

First of all, the huge clouds of smoke emanating from the bottom of the rockets were immediately shunted away from the launch pad by large underground tunnels. Next, the flames from the rockets were not yellow, red, white or blue…instead they were a bright, hot, stainless steel color! The 15-story tall spacecraft seemed to hesitate a few seconds before majestically lifting with such power – proudly, straight as an arrow into the sky, shining in the sunlight just before sundown. There was no smell of fuel or smoke. Over 750,000 pounds were being lifted into space!

We all kept sight of the ascent until the ceiling of our open-air platform cut off the view. As I turned to run to the railing on the other side, I saw Mary, my wife, in back of me smiling, while her guide dog was wagging its tail – both loving the experience.

From the side railing, I discerned the continuation of the spacecraft’s vapor trail streaming high into the sky. Suddenly, the white vapor trail began to bend horizontally and stopped. But my right eye continued to see the distant, tiny, now red and yellow flames from its rockets – the spacecraft was beginning its planned angular orbit.

Mary and Ken Kozy at the OSIRIS-REx launch. (Photo provided)

What a beautiful sight! This is the culmination of over 10 years of intensive work, cooperation and interest by thousands of people from all over the world – the first unmanned US spacecraft sent to intensely study and sample a Near Earth Object Asteroid. The science we learn should help us to remove such objects from a collision course with Earth. Its instruments will measure every square inch of that asteroid and send us the results.

In 4 years the spacecraft will acquire a sample of this 4.5 billion years old asteroid now called Bennu. This will be accomplished with a gentle touch, but not landing on it. After leaving for home, it will release its capsule containing the pristine sample back to Earth in 2023 for detailed scientific study. The sample may indicate the origins of our solar system, and water and life on Earth. Then, the spacecraft will orbit the Sun for thousands of years, perhaps until some future generation captures it, analyzes it, and reads the contents of its electronic memory.

One of those data banks is a memory stick of the artwork submitted by over 7,000 people from around our Earth. That includes my eBook (a Christmas Nativity story – computer translated into seven languages), artwork photos, 7-Dimensional eCommunication Concepts, and a prayer for success of the Mission and NASA. After the press conference, Richard Kuhns, Lockheed Martin OSIRIS-REx Program Manager, assured me that all submissions are present on the spacecraft. In its final phase, this Asteroid Sample Return Spacecraft will become a “time capsule” of our current culture for future descendants to explore and understand.

The press conference after the launch in Cape Canaveral Florida was jubilant. Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist, told us “Every day at NASA we are turning science fiction into science facts, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator, joyfully exclaimed, “You all will be glad to know we got everything just exactly perfect.”

Now after weeks of travel, NASA reports that this two-ton spacecraft continues on course and all tested systems are working as planned. Successful launch – NASA did it, the world’s scientists did it, we did it, you did it, our government did it, and we US taxpayers did it ($800 million budget)!

I still say, this launch was a miracle. In the previous week, a SpaceX rocket and its satellite for Facebook completely blew up on a launch pad just one mile away. Then the week after, the launch of an Atlas V spacecraft was scrubbed due to a fuel leak in California – not rescheduled for weeks. Thank God, our important Mission is now safely on its round-trip journey of 4.4 billion miles to reach a speed of over 61,000 mph catching up to the asteroid – to study it and to capture and return a sample of the surface. The name of this spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, is short for: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security – Regolith Explorer.

To view video and to hear and enjoy the actual launch, to see exciting updates, and to learn more about this vital NASA Mission, go to this free internet link on a computer or smartphone: www.KenKozy.com – then click the tab “eBook NASA Launch.”

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