One often overlooked perks of living in Central Florida is the ability to watch space launches.  No matter how often I see them (and I see them as often as I can), a rocket screaming into the sky never fails to amaze me.  NASA and the Air Force launch rockets from Cape Canaveral regularly with names like Delta 2, Delta 4, Atlas 5, and I’m sure there are others.  But in November I rode out to the coast to watch my favorite of all for sheer visual spectacle, a Space Shuttle launch.  And this is my favorite, a night launch.

     Watching the Space Shuttle make the amazingly quick voyage into space is something I can’t seem to get enough of.  I can still feel the sensations of watching my first liftoff back in 2000.  I was sitting in a restaurant with my one-year-old daughter, some 40 miles from Cape Canaveral, completely unaware that a launch would be taking place. I looked out the window to see a trail of fire and smoke tipped by the smallest white speck. To this day I can still relive that feeling of awe that comes from witnessing something so unexpected and powerful.  I have missed watching few liftoffs since, even if I only walk outside and look to the east.

     This launch was set for a Friday night at 7:55.  Daylight savings time had just ended and the sun would set by 6, and it would be very dark by liftoff.  As luck would have it some old friends invited me to join them in Titusville (which is to my knowledge the best place to watch a launch).  Leave AAA’s national office in Heathrow at 5, hop on my motorcycle and ride the hour or so it will take to get to Titusville, arrive a little after 6, stake a claim to some land next to the water, sit and enjoy a cool fall night and watch a launch. That sounded like a plan.

     I arrived about 6:15, the sun had just set and it was getting dark. I parked across the street from the Intercoastal Waterway, on the other side of which is the Kennedy Space Center.  I found my friends with a lot of “OK, I’m in the center of the field, toward the water, is that you? What are you wearing?  Can you see me yet?”  (Coincidently, I still believe that finding people in crowds is the single most invaluable use of a mobile phone)

     The stage was already set for an amazing launch. Across the water the launch pad looked like a football stadium, brightly lit and its aura suggesting something big is coming.  The sky was dark with only traces of clouds, it was cool but not cold, and there was only a mild wind.  As if NASA had somehow orchestrated an opening act, a subtle trace of reddish light appeared on the horizon just to the north the launch pad.  The moon was rising.  I can’t remember ever having seen the moon come up over the horizon.  I’ve seen my share of sunsets, and even the occasional sunrise (there may be a couple of future blogs about these, but I digress), but I don’t believe that I have ever watched the moon rise.  I don’t know how that can be true, but it was amazing.  It went from a hint of a red glow on the horizon to a reddish-hued orb just above the horizon to the familiar ethereal white glow in the night sky in a matter of minutes.  It’s unexpectedly quick assent provided some early entertainment and conversation.

     As the scheduled launch time approached, the excitement started to build. Children were called to their parents, cameras were given one final check, and everyone stood still in anticipation, looking towards the still launch pad.  The last few minutes can take forever. I didn’t even want to look at my watch, wanting to catch the very instant of ignition.  From across the water, a flicker of light and a sudden, silent, intense orange glow illuminated the horizon.  For a few seconds it was just a glow, and then a burst of light and the shuttle itself pierced the sky emerging from a cloud of smoke.  “Crap! Camera!” I snapped a couple of pictures, not too many, because this won’t last long (and looks so much better with the naked eye).  The shuttle began to pick up speed sitting atop a column of flame several times its size.  For several seconds the entire coast was bathed in light.

     Everyone’s eyes were trained on the trail of flame and smoke as it quickly picked up speed.  We had been enveloped in almost complete silence since the first signs of the launch.  One of my friends turned to me in disbelief, asking “Why couldn’t we hear it?” assuming naturally that since almost 30 seconds had passed since the launch and we hadn’t heard anything, we weren’t going to. As I started to answer, a low, deep rumbling began.   It’s not painfully loud, but it was powerful and unmistakably the sound of the rocket engines starting.  The shuttle was a rapidly disappearing dot on the horizon but the rumble got louder, providing a surreal audible replay of what we had seen nearly a minute earlier.  The sound followed the shuttle’s path into the sky, trailing well behind the streak of flame.

     About two minutes after liftoff the dot of orange light in the sky could barely be seen as two small specks fall away.  Within another two minutes it was a speck of light almost indistinguishable from the stars that surround it.  Within another four minutes shuttle and the people aboard it are beyond the horizon and in space.  That quickly.  From sitting on the ground to a place so distant that only a handful of people have ever been in less than ten minutes.

     Over an hour ride to the coast, sitting in the dark waiting for the launch for another two hours, and an hour ride back.  Was it worth it?  Every time.

     The next launch of Discovery from is set for a sunrise time: 7:32 a.m. on February 12, 2009. Delays and ‘scrubs’ are an inevitable part of the schedule as all conditions have to be optimal.  Get complete NASA information here and check out SpaceFlightNow.com as well.
 
     I have posted a picture of the launch, taken with my cell phone, but even when I take my camera with me I can’t seem to get a photograph that resembles what is seen with the naked eye.  The photographs always look like a ball of light, but in person the shuttle itself can be seen along with the flame and there is so much more detail.  This site has some beautiful photos but if anyone can give me advice about how to get better pictures myself, or has a shuttle story to share, I would love to hear it.