Cheering for shuttle at aviation museum

As nearly 1 million people lined Florida shores Friday for the space shuttle's final launch, about 200 Long Islanders gathered in a darkened room at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City to watch a broadcast of the launch projected onto a large screen.

The group, which included former employees of companies that helped build Atlantis, began counting aloud 10 seconds before the shuttle lifted off into the sky above Cape Canaveral. The room filled with cheers and applause as Atlantis took off for its 12-day mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

"It's very melancholy. You're sorry to see it end," said Marc MacDonnell, a former manager at Fairchild Aircraft in Farmingdale, which designed the shuttle's fins and rudders. "I just hope the United States picks up and moves forward with something else."

Thousands of miles away in Houston, former shuttle astronaut Kevin Kregel, who grew up in Amityville, watched the launch at home on television.

"It was a bittersweet moment, watching it," Kregel, 54, said by phone. "It was a great vehicle and it's done a lot of terrific research. I wish we had another one to replace it."

He said he thinks that ending the shuttle program could lead to a decline in scientific research and innovation. "This sort of scientific research is our future," he said. "When times get tough, a farmer will tell you, you never eat your seed corn . . . you'll have nothing to plant in the spring and you'll starve next winter. And that's what we're doing now."

Kregel, now a pilot with Southwest Airlines, graduated from Amityville Memorial High School. He logged 52 days in space during four shuttle flights, including the 1997 Columbia and 2000 Endeavour missions that he commanded, before retiring in 2002.

He and his wife, the former Jeanne Kammer of Farmingdale, had planned to attend Atlantis' final launch in late June, but the event was postponed.

Up until the final minutes, weather and computer problems threatened to delay Friday's launch. At the aviation museum, anxious chatter filled the room when the countdown stopped at 31. It resumed a few minutes later to applause.

For Dan Katzenstein, who helped design lunar modules at Grumman Aerospace Corp., the final shuttle launch meant the virtual end of the space program. "It's a shame because I think we're going to lose our prestigious position," the Jericho resident said at the museum. "I think we've got a long way to go, and we'll wake up and realize that sometime in the future."

Not all at the museum reacted to the launch wistfully. "I wanna be an astronaut when I grow up," said Jimmy Fitzpatrick, 7, of Syosset, proving the shuttle can still inspire. "I want to start at Mars."