Fans View Flight’s Return

They huddled together in the dark, heads craned, listening for a boom and waiting for something to dart across the sky. Starting about 4 a.m. Tuesday, the small throng camped in a dirt triangle bordering California 58 near Mojave, gripped binoculars or video cameras or each other’s arms. With each rumble of a passing big rig, some asked: Is it the shuttle?

The countdown to Discovery’s landing at Edwards Air Force Base lured almost 50 people to an area just outside the north gate of the base, where they unfolded camp chairs under desert stars and swapped stories laced with nostalgia for childhood dreams of space.

Many had driven hundreds of miles to hear two booms and for six minutes of shouting at the sky.

Jarrod Sinclair, 30, started looking at a NASA website from his Apple Valley home at 8 p.m. Monday. Seven hours later, when he learned Discovery would land at Edwards, he roused three of his five children from bed. Sinclair, who had seen a 1982 landing, wanted to pass on the experience.

His teenage daughters donned jeans, but his 12-year-old, Brandon Phares, had slept in his clothes and was ready for the trip. They drove 75 minutes to the base and huddled on the tailgate of their Ford Expedition.

Sinclair telephoned his father, who lives in Dallas, and asked: “Where did we go when we were kids? At the base or far away? The reason I’m asking is, we’re here.”

His father reminded him that they had been on the base itself, where onlookers used to squeeze onto plywood benches. However, the base stopped allowing spectators in the ‘90s because of security and crowd control concerns.

“I remember the booms.... I remember being in awe, being 7 years old and trying to absorb it all,” said Sinclair, who works for an insurance company. He dreamed of being an astronaut but jokes that he didn’t become one because he was scared of heights.

“Seeing the shuttle, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I’m lucky to do it twice,” he said.

Shuttle fans can tick off space flight statistics like sports fans recount baseball scores. But this landing was weighted with emotion. The crowd was tense: Would the shuttle return safely, they wondered. Is this shuttle mission the last?

Discovery was diverted from Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of foul weather, making this the first landing at the Mojave Desert base since the shuttle Endeavour touched down in 2002. This was also the first mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003, when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas, killing its crew.

When Discovery blasted off July 26, a chunk of foam fell from its external fuel tank, raising concerns about possible damage. In the Columbia disaster, a hole was punched in the leading edge of the craft’s wing during launch by a piece of foam that fell off the external tank.

While Discovery was not seriously damaged, NASA has temporarily halted any more flights.

Karin Woods, 50, fidgeted with her Discovery-logo necklace as she recounted the 17 landings she had watched at Edwards and how she had caught nearly every liftoff on television. “I didn’t see Apollo 13. I was getting my tonsils out,” she explained.

Woods, who lives in Bakersfield, had ambitions to be an astronaut, but NASA didn’t accept women when she was young. Instead, her college graduation present was a week at a space camp for grown-ups in Alabama.

Her colleagues at the Kern County Sheriff’s Department had to comfort her when Challenger exploded in 1986. “Columbia broke my heart,” she said.

Woods and her 18-year-old son stayed up all night, monitoring the NASA website. They jumped in the car at 3:15 a.m. with a giant mug of coffee.

Moments before the landing, she fretted over the possible end of the shuttle program. As cars whizzed past, she took some comfort in Discovery returning to Edwards.

“It’ll be as good as the first one,” she said.

During the wait, onlookers hung out in their rumpled clothing, sipping coffee or soda and smoking cigarettes.

Robert Cameron, a 42-year-old plumber, drove up from Costa Mesa for his first shuttle landing. Born in New Zealand, he grew up fascinated with outer space. He marveled at living in a country where one could witness spacecraft returning home.

“They leave Earth, fly a plane to space and come back safely,” he said, shaking his head in wonder.

About 5:06 a.m., it happened. Boom. Boom. A sound like fireworks, or rifle blasts, as Discovery entered the atmosphere. The crowd, some gathered around a portable television, clapped and hollered.

A small white dot descended, as though a star were dropping from the heavens. It circled clockwise, and spectators tracked its journey:

“Whoo!” “There it is!” “A little dot. It’s just a little dot.” “I never thought it would be that high up.”

On a car radio, an announcer called out: “Three minutes until touchdown,” in a deep baritone.

Two little boys tried to repeat: “Three miles till touchdown.”

The crowd scanned the predawn sky for the moving dot, and lost it among the stars. They never saw it again.

At 5:12 a.m., the radio announced: “Touch down. Discovery is home.”

“I didn’t even see it,” several spectators said. “That went fast.”

“Wow,” was all one woman could muster, as the rest of the shuttle fans silently retreated to their cars, lugging their chairs, just as the black sky began to lighten.