"It was amazing, the best thing I've ever seen"
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 20/01) - From the side of a road three kilometres from the Kennedy Space Centre launch pad, a troupe of Yellowknife air cadets got the show of a lifetime Thursday.
At exactly 12:41 p.m. Yellowknife time, the Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off, carrying Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a made-in-Canada robot arm, and a supply of caribou and muskox jerky from Nunavut.
"It was amazing, the best thing I've ever seen," said Cadet Sgt Britt Bancroft.
Bancroft and four other local cadets were invited to watch the launch as guests of Hadfield. The visit was an experience they won't be forgetting any time soon.
"It was really quite intense," said Cadet Leslie Miller.
Bancroft echoed those sentiments.
"When they started counting down from ten, they got to t-minus two, and you could see the plume of smoke from the engines."
The liftoff, which can be seen as far away as North Fort Myers, nearly 250 kilometres away, "just rumbles the ground," when you're up close and personal, says Bancroft.
The five cadets were selected by their instructors to recognize their proficiency in military drills.
The cadets left last Tuesday morning, and arrived in Orlando that evening.
Miller says some of the highlights of the trip were being interviewed on CTV's Canada A.M., and getting a tour of the Kennedy Space Centre.
"There's real astronauts who were there to show us around and answer our questions," he said.
The cadets were accompanied on their trip by their commanding officer, Capt. Steve Daniels, and the Elks' Roland Gagnon. The Elks, along with the department of Education, Culture, and Employment, and the Canadian Forces, Northern Area.
