An Historic Launch! (Part 1)

On April 1, 2026, four brave humans climbed aboard a rocket in a spaceship that had never before flown people. And we were there to watch!

As an ambassador for Stardust, I was given the opportunity along with my fellow ambassadors to be a part of Lockheed Martin’s Launch Party at Fishlips in Port Canaveral, FL. While there were activities going on all week for attendees leading up to the launch, I was unable to leave from work in Atlanta until after school on Tuesday, March 31.

My wife and I jumped in the Mustang and sped off (well, as much as Atlanta traffic would allow!) south!

Paola caught a video of Erica and I headed to the launch!

The next morning, April 1, we met up with some of the other ambassadors for a launch day breakfast! So far, everything was looking great for the launch.

After breakfast (thanks to Michael Smith, MSFC, for covering our breakfast. That was unexpected!) we decided that we didn’t want to get stuck in any traffic so we went ahead and drove over to the restaurant parking area.

Once there we had a lot of time to kill, so some of us decided to walk over to Jetty Park Pier to see if we could get a view of the pad looking up the beach. Myself, Osho Priya, and Brian Ewenson grabbed some camp chairs and started walking. Brian is a former astronaut trainer and worked with many shuttle crews over the years, and is an avid photographer so he brought his camera along to try to get some good shots.

Just a couple of space nerds!

Once we got to the beach and Brian got some pictures, the rain started moving in! We immediately started the two-mile walk back to Fishlips with our camp chairs open over our heads. We. Got. Soaked! Brian and I were in t-shirts and shorts, but Osho had worn a nice pantsuit since we were going to be spending the day with government and corporate officials. I felt so bad that we had led her on this “adventure” (‘Adventures suck when you’re having them’ - N. Peart) and now she was drenched! We ended up calling an Uber to take us back.

Once we made it back to the group we tried to find a place to eat as our restaurant was closed to prepare for the launch. There were several little restaurants along the port so we found one, and Erica took Osho across the street to a beach shop where she bought some new clothes. She went from business dress to beach tourist quickly with her new shorts, t-shirt, and sun hat! I think she was much more comfortable!

We passed the rest of the afternoon catching up with old friends and making new ones. Our crew consisted of Dianea Phillips from Canada, Brian from Arizona, Danny Jaques from Colorado (owner/operator of Danny’s Rocket Ranch), Paola Rodriguez & David Baresco from Venezuela via Miami (Owners of Neko Aerospace), Osho Priya from Washington, myself & Erica from Georgia, and astronaut & teacher Amy Medina from Houston.

To be continued in Part 2!