ENDEAVOUR SCHEDULED TO LAND TODAY

Astronaut Linda Godwin expects to come down to Earth today, but two Jackson residents are still flying high over the launching of the space shuttle Endeavour 11 days ago.

NASA kept the space shuttle and its crew of six in orbit an extra day because of bad weather Tuesday at the Florida landing site.

"It is pretty awesome," Patty Reisenbichler, the executive secretary of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, said of the launch.

"We graduated together. We were friends in high school," said Reisenbichler.

A native of Oak Ridge, Godwin attended Jackson High School, graduating in 1970.

Reisenbichler said Tuesday that she and her husband and their two teenage children traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to view the liftoff. They also witnessed Godwin's first space flight in April 1991.

Jackson High School physics teacher Ed Sebaugh also viewed both of Godwin's flights. Godwin's a former student of Sebaugh's.

"She was an excellent student," he recalled.

"It is a tremendous feeling of satisfaction that a student from this high school has achieved that much success in life," he said.

Both he and Reisenbichler were among guests of Godwin's at a reception on April 5 at the space center. The astronaut, however, was not there as she was in quarantine in preparation for the flight.

Both Sebaugh and Reisenbichler said the launch of Endeavour on April 9 was just as exciting as the liftoff of space shuttle Atlantis in April 1991.

"I would be anxious to go again," said Sebaugh, who viewed the Endeavour launch from a special viewing area across the Banana River from the launch pad, a distance of 3.6 miles.

"It's a real pretty view across there," said Sebaugh, who estimated that about 400 to 500 people were gathered at that viewing site.

Those viewing the seaside liftoff were bused to the site about an hour and 20 minutes before the launch. Sebaugh said they sat on bleachers. A separate set of bleachers was set up at the site for the families of the astronauts.

"The weather was simply beautiful," said Sebaugh, who videotaped the event. He said the shuttle was only in view for five minutes from the time it lifted off the space center pad.

Reisenbichler viewed the launch from another site along the Banana River, which was reachable by car. NASA officials anticipated 7,000 vehicles would converge on that site for the launch, she said.

The flight originally was scheduled to blast off on Friday, April 8, but was delayed because of strong cross winds.

"We left our motel at 4 a.m. and we were in place at 4:30 Friday morning," she recalled. "We sat there until after 10:30 (a.m.) before they finally scrubbed it."

NASA launched the shuttle the next day. "We got there early," said Reisenbichler, more than three hours before liftoff. "We left the motel at 3 o'clock that morning. We were there within probably 45 minutes."

She said, "They park you four or five cars deep. Most people take their lawn chairs and blankets and you sit down near the water."

The crowd can hear the communication between NASA and the astronauts, and the countdown via big loudspeakers.

When the shuttle lifts off, "you feel the ground vibrate," said Reisenbichler.

Within five minutes after the launch, the shuttle was no longer visible and the crowd was heading for their cars.

"When we started to leave that day, they announced that the shuttle was passing over England," she recalled. "It all happened so fast."