The Thrill of the Lift

By Janice E. Voss, Veteran NASA Astronaut


Watching a Space Shuttle launch is an unceasingly awesome experience for me. I have seen a couple of dozen from the outside, and five from the inside. Both are spectacular. From the outside, you see the flame of the main engine ignition and exhaust clouds boiling around the base of the stack. If you’re close enough, when the sound finally reaches you several seconds later, you can actually feel the pressure of the sound waves beating on your chest. Then, the solid rocket motors light so brightly that it’s uncomfortable to watch the flame directly. The stack lifts out of the flame and billowing clouds. It is impossible not to be moved by the excited cheers of the crowd and amazed by what a truly dedicated and outstanding team has just achieved!

The experience from the inside is spectacular in a completely different way. On the inside, you are part of the team, and I found I didn’t really think about how it felt until after I landed and had the time to just enjoy. Astronauts train over and over for the launch count and ascent. They get a centrifuge run that simulates the acceleration they will feel, so they can be prepared for that. There’s a practice launch about 3 weeks before the real launch, so that they can step smoothly through the procedures come the real day. All the nervous excitement you might expect happened for me at the practice launch (there are even signs saying “Have a great flight”), so that my first launch felt completely familiar.


After astronauts are strapped into their seats (about 2 hours before liftoff time), there’s constant information flowing from the launch team over the ground communication system about how the launch count is going. There are activities involving the crew (pressure check when the hatch is closed, several communication checks over the different communication loops) just frequent enough to keep them focused on not making any mistakes. I find myself completely absorbed in thinking ahead to the next step. When the Solid Rocket Motors lit, I had time for a brief thought that I was very thankful that all my family and friends who had come to support me got to see a launch, and then I was focused back on my checklist.

An astronaut’s first view of the Earth is the perfect period on the launch experience. On my first flight, I launched on the middeck, which doesn’t have a window. My first time up to the flight deck, when there was a good view of the Earth, was just about the time we came over Kennedy Space Center on the first orbit. So, the first thing I saw was the launch complex and the causeway where all the people important to me were (stuck in traffic). I waved. I’d been around the world once, and my guests hadn’t even gotten home!
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Janice Voss (Ph.D) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut from Rockford, Illinois. She received her Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977, and continued on to earn her doctorate in aeronautics/astronautics from MIT in 1987. Since becoming an astronaut in July 1991, Dr. Voss has completed five successful space flights, serving aboard STS-57 in 1993, STS-63 in 1995, STS-83 and STS-94 in 1997, and STS-99 in 2000. Dr.Voss has also received many special honors, including four NASA Space Flight Medals (1993, 1995, 1997, 2000).