I Accidentally Saw a Rocket Launch

🌟 Episode Highlights

• the rocket launch
• the space shuttle
• the memorial

Find me on social media!  ➪ @missjeanteaches

• YouTube
• Instagram
• TikTok

Support me

Transcript

Hello, hello! Welcome to English Extras! I’m Jean, and this is the podcast that takes you beyond textbook English. If you’re tired of boring grammar drills and dry vocabulary lists and you want to sound more natural, more you, then you’re in the right place. Every episode is packed with real-world English, cultural tips, and smart strategies to boost your fluency. So, are you ready? Let’s learn some English.

One of my students came to visit me in February 2025. While he was here, the four of us–me, my husband, my student, and his wife–took a day trip to Kennedy Space Center. For this episode, I want to share with you what I saw and learned. This episode is going to focus on sharing an important part of American history and culture, not on direct language teaching.

First, let me tell you a brief history of space travel in America.

Space travel in the United States began during the Cold War, which was a time when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were in a race to be the first to explore space. NASA, the American space agency, was created in 1958. In 1961, the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard, went to space. Just a few years later, in 1969, the U.S. sent the first humans to the moon with the Apollo 11 mission. This was one of the biggest achievements in history, and people around the world watched it on television, including my dad, who was 9 years old at the time.

After that, NASA continued to explore space. In 1981, they launched a new kind of spacecraft called the space shuttle. The shuttle was special because it could be used more than once. It could carry astronauts and equipment to space and return back to Earth to be used again. But space travel is always risky. In 1986, the space shuttle named Challenger exploded just after takeoff, killing all seven crew members. In 2003, Columbia broke apart during its return to Earth, also killing its crew of seven.

Today, NASA works with private companies like SpaceX to continue exploring space. They are planning to send astronauts to the moon again—and even to Mars someday. What do you think about that? It still shocks me that we–as humans–were able to put a man on the moon with less technology than what we carry in our pockets every day, and now we’re actively planning a mission to Mars.

I want to tell you about three things I experienced at Kennedy Space Center: the rocket launch, the Atlantis shuttle, and the Challenger and Columbia memorials.

First, the rocket launch.

The rocket launch was a surprise. When we arrived, we believed there was no launch that day, so we were very confused why there were so many people outside, clearly waiting for something. We quickly discovered, after asking a few people, that there was going to be a launch in just a few minutes. We had arrived just in time.

A man was making announcements over a loud speaker that everyone in the Kennedy Space Center could hear, but the only words I could understand was the countdown: 10…9…8…7… A few seconds after we all yelled “one!” we could see the rocket climbing through the sky. The tail of the rocket was so bright, I couldn’t look at it. It was like trying to look at the sun.

The rocket was already quite high in the sky by the time the sound reached us. It was like listening to thunder inside a tunnel. We could feel the rumble through our feet. 

After the rocket disappeared, we explored the center. We watched films, visited exhibits, and soon we arrived at the Atlantis space shuttle.

Words like huge and enormous are still too small. They have the Atlantis shuttle hanging inside Kennedy Space Center, so you can walk around it, see inside it, and walk under it. Maybe a good word is gargantuan. 

It’s also crazy to see it, regardless of its size, and realize that it flew to space and back 33 times between the years 1985 and 2011.

Just before you leave the Atlantis exhibit, there’s a small hallway with glass cases on each wall. Each case contains the picture, name, and special items of each crew member lost on the Challenger and the Columbia. I didn’t take any pictures there, because it was a memorial to those lost.

I walked slowly, stopping and looking at each case, looking at the faces, the names, and the items representing their hobbies and achievements. It was a quiet moment for me, seeing the people who were so passionate about space travel, about science, about discovery, and to know they died doing what they loved. 

My trip to Kennedy Space Center was humbling, to say the least. Have you had an experience like that? When you are witness to something so big, you feel small. Standing next to the space shuttle Atlantis, watching an actual rocket launch, and learning about space in general–all of that made me feel small, but in a good way. I felt small but connected and I like the feeling of being connected to the wider world, even connected to the universe itself.

Of course, it’s also amazing to see how many brilliant people worked so hard for so long to achieve these incredible things. It made me feel like, if they could do that, imagine what I could do. If they could figure out how to put someone on the moon, with so little technology, imagine what I can use my talents and access to technology for–imagine what you could do!

If you’ve experienced anything like that, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for being here, as always. Until next time, my friends. Bye!