Shuttle Launch

Saturday was my daughter's birthday. We planned to cap off the day with a drive to Titusville to watch the space shuttle launch. It ended up not working out, so we were home in the evening.
 
A little after 7 I turned on the NASA channel to keep track of how things were going. I didn't know what the weather was like at the cape but it was beautiful at our house. Not much wind, no clouds, very nice. As I watched the countdown progress I could feel myself getting really keyed up. It is just a really exciting event. I've got to think that if you are there working on the launch it has to be a total rush. As I sat with the kids watching the countdown it was funny because my kids haven't seen the orbiter sitting on the pad without the protective cover over it. So my daughter asked, "Why is that air plane on the shuttle?" So we went over the various parts of the shuttle. The kids had just had a bath and it was cold out, so they stayed inside for the launch.
 
I went outside a few minutes before launch and walked to the end of our block. I knew it would be going up somewhere just north of straight east and at the end of our street the only thing blocking my view would be some trees a ways off. I got passed the buildings and started looking around. I wasn't sure exactly where the shuttle would come up, and I didn't want to miss it. I didn't need to worry. An orange glow built up around the trees and it looked like the sun was coming up. The size and brightness of it all just amazed me. I'm not exaggerating about it looking like sunrise. That lasted a few seconds, then I saw the vehicle heading up. It was an extremely bright orange fire, and I followed it, up through some thin clouds and kept watching as the solid boosters separated and fell away. After that the light was a lot more white and not really orange. Pretty soon it was getting farther away and so it appeared to be moving downward. I think it was already more than 150 miles down range. So I went in and started watching it on t.v. again.
 
They were showing a view from a camera attached to the fuel tank. I pointed out to my kids what they were seeing. It was a little dark and difficult to make out. A couple times interference mad the shot get 'staticy'. My daughter had her second funny question. "I thought we had cable dad. What's wrong with the t.v.?" I told her the problem was with the camera sending back the picture from a vehicle moving so fast and so far away.
 
I had really wanted to be closer for the launch, but I'm glad I got to see it the way I did. I still can't get my head around the amount of light generated. I don't think I've ever seen anything close to it. I've seen very large forest fires at night, or lights from a large stadium just out of view - but this was just so much larger. I haven't looked at the schedule for 2007 but I hope there will be a few more night launches.
 
I never did hear it. I guess the sound just doesn't make it that far. (If I get a chance today I'm going to try and figure out how far it is from my house to the launch pad.)

I've seen it from Titusville....

[FortKnox]

... and you know what? I probably would rather see it from further away. Titusville gets EXTREMELY packed, you don't get near enough as you'd like (you can't even see it on the stand unless you have binocs), and once its over, you have to sit in like 2 hour traffic before you leave.

Still a tremendous site, though, isn't it?!?

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

it's incredible. i know what you mean about the traffic. but i'll still do it. a guy and i at work were talking about how it would be tough to spot a kayak at night - but i don't think the consequences would be worth it on the off chance you were to get caught. so you're right, we wouldn't get too close - but i'll take what I can get.

Much to my chagrin

[rk]

I've never been to any launch event, even though I've worked on targeting and ground data software for three different Mars missions. I had an invite to the MER-B (Opportunity rover) launch, but couldn't quite scrape up the dough for plane tickets there... which was good since that launch got postponed by two weeks and I would've missed it anyway.

While I live in SC I've just have to make the time to drive down and watch a launch. I'm kicking myself missing this last one... given the inclination they lau

Heh

[robi2106]

I lived in Merritt Island for many years. That was a blast, literally. About 3-5 minutes after initial lift off, and before the booster separation, you hear the massive rumbling and things start shaking. Glasses in the cabinets, anything glass on the top of shelves, car alarms go off. Loads of fun. In elementary school, where local schools are named such names as Apollo, Challenger 7, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour, Jupiter, etc. The explosion of school buildings in the 50s gave rise to lots of schoo