I had missed the previous landing and was really ticked at myself for that. I was totally dialed in for STS-107's return. There were arguments here on SDC about the need for a non-ISS flight, but IMO they had some really useful and just plain cool experiments on that flight and I was taking a break from NASA bashing as a result.<br /><br />I had NASA TV in one window, with another source one click away in case that failed (bandwidth was a big issue then and it was common to lose NASA TV just when things got interesting). I had these boards in another window, on the update thread. That mission was the first one of those IIRC. I had another space board on another. I had refreshed my knowledge of the re-entry time-line. I'm a night owl but I got up at 5AM for it.<br /><br />I remember it like yesterday. I'm all dialed in, really enjoying myself in full space geek mode.<br /><br />And then the air to ground call did not come. I flashed back to the delay for Apollo 8's re-entry, said "no problem, it's OK".<br /><br />Then the minutes passed, and with each second a sense of dread grew. After ten minutes had gone by without the call coming, my mind was racing with possible explanations. None made any sense. I got up from the computer. I specifically remember getting dizzy and having to sit down on the couch, the computer suddenly having become an evil thing in my living room.<br /><br />Strangely though, I do not remember just when I got the official word. I think I've blacked that moment out. After those clearly remembered minutes of waiting is just a blur. I'm pretty sure I posted on the thread here, I do remember that many of us were in full-on denial mode for at least a bit.<br /><br />The rest of the day is a blur. The weeks following were no picnic either.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>