#  Astronomy graduate student Juliana Garcia-Mejia attends TESS launch 

 





May 08, 2018

 

 

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 Garcia-Mejia: Last month, I was lucky enough to win a NASA lottery to attend the TESS launch as a VIP guest at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. As is the case with rocket launches, there were a series of launch windows starting on April 16, 2018, at 6:32pm. As hundreds of scientists were getting ready to board the buses that would take us from the KSC visitor complex to the viewing site on April 16, a NASA representative crushed our launch-viewing dreams with a simple two words: "launch scrubbed". A second launch window did not open until Wednesday, April 18 at 6:51pm. After countless hotel and flight changes, we were able to experience a spectacular launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the precious TESS spacecraft. While the ground did not rumble ( we watched from a safe distance of 3 miles) I was struck by the roaring sound of the rocket that hit us 15 seconds after launch (due to the finite speed of sound). This was truly an event to remember.

   ![Image of TESS about to launch, Photo Credit: Michael Deep / SpaceFlight Insider](/sites/g/files/omnuum6286/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/astronomy/files/image-2.png?itok=UiwnwEY8) 

 

   ![TESS VIP Pass](/sites/g/files/omnuum6286/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/astronomy/files/img_5454.jpg?itok=TcTVFRpc) 

 



 

 

 

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 Attachments- [  image  020413\_loeb\_015\_605.jpg ](/sites/g/files/omnuum6286/files/astronomy/files/020413_loeb_015_605.jpg)
 
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 See also:- [ Undergraduate ](/announcements/undergraduate)
- [ 2018 ](/news-date/2018)
 
 

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