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Donated by: Mrs. Estevez

   Picture this: You drove over three hours to Kennedy Space Center to watch the Artemis 1 launch, and you’re standing right there. The test flight for the first manned mission to the moon in years? Plans for a moon base? All this information, your head is spinning!

   And then the announcement happens, you’re counting down the minutes until you witness history…

   And then the launch gets scrapped due to a fuel leak. 

   Wait. 

   What?!

   After a few launch attempts, they’ve postponed the next attempt until late September at the very earliest. We reached out to Mrs. Darlene Estevez, who witnessed everything right from the scene.

   She and her family went to the A. Max Brewer Bridge, which was right across from the launch pad. They got there at around midnight to find a parking spot, and slept in her van for around four hours. In her own words, “…There [were] a lot of people there and there was a big sense of excitement.” 

   And then… nothing. A failed attempt. The launch was scrubbed, and everyone rushed away. 

   According to Mrs. Estevez, there was absolutely a sense of disappointment in the air, but everyone’s first priority was rushing to their cars in order to beat the traffic. 

   And she does hope to go to the next launch attempt, which is planned for September 27th, 2022. 

   Senior Matthew Castillo also attempted to visit the launch with fellow senior Elio Galvez and a couple other seniors! They ended up around twenty minutes away from the launch site before the announcement of the delay. They immediately turned around and began the three-hour drive back. Elio said “We were in the car for so long, and then I got a text from my mom. She sent me a news article about the fuel leak. So I tried to get Matthew’s attention, and we turned back.”

   The Artemis 1 launch was clearly highly anticipated. The test flight for a new manned mission to the moon when there hasn’t been one since Apollo 17 all the way back in 1972? Of course it was. Even though this isn’t the manned flight itself, it’s still wildly important. Everyone was excited for the launch attempts that both got scrapped last-minute, but unfortunately there’s nothing anyone can do about a fuel leak except fix it and try again another day. 

   Here’s hoping that the September 27th launch can proceed as planned so that Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 can stay on schedule, and history is finally written!