South Lake Students View Historic Shuttle Launch

Students from Karen Sahadi's seventh-grade science class at watched the final launch of space shuttle Endeavour Monday and joined with thousands in Florida who counted down to liftoff of the historic mission.

Patch editor Edward Cardenas, who had participated in a NASA's tweetup prior to the scrubbed launch in April, joined the class to watch the liftoff and shared his experience of seeing behind scenes on a tour he received during the tweetup NASA held for Twitter users.

"(The launch) was so cool," said Emily Estrada, 12, of St. Clair Shores. "I would have been really scared."

As the 29 students watched the launch on NASA television, "oohs" and "aahs" were mixed with questions about the speed of the shuttle, what the astronauts were experiencing and what was occurring as they viewed live feeds from onboard cameras.

During the original tweetup, Cardenas used the online video messaging service Skype to speak with Sahadi's seventh-grade science classes from the press area about three miles from the launch pad. Additionally, the students spoke with astronaut Ricky Arnold and actor LeVar Burton.

This time, Cardenas exchanged messages with Minneapolis resident Nicole Harrison, who wanted to know how many kids were watching the launch.

"This is going to be part of their life," said Sahadi. "They are witnessing history."

The current shuttle mission will last 16 days and will include four space walks. Three of the space walks will be commanded by Oakland County native . For those who watch the space walks, he will have red stripes on his space suit.