I've been absent as of late and for that I apologize. Now that the Winter Quarter has come to an end, I've been able to return to my own projects, both professional and diversion-al. To kick-start my return to the bloggoworld, I'm happy to report that I got myself out of bed at 6am (!) this morning in order to watch the space shuttle launch from the backyard.
I'd planned on walking across to the beach to get a really spectacular view, but really, when it's 6am and you've only had a few hours of sleep, even the coolest intentions can't wake a person up THAT much. But I did blearily stumble out into the grass in my blanket with about a minute to spare, before the dark horizon turned golden and a giant fireball launched itself into the night sky.
I'd planned on walking across to the beach to get a really spectacular view, but really, when it's 6am and you've only had a few hours of sleep, even the coolest intentions can't wake a person up THAT much. But I did blearily stumble out into the grass in my blanket with about a minute to spare, before the dark horizon turned golden and a giant fireball launched itself into the night sky.
It didn't look like this.
But it did look like this, before the rocket boosters disengaged and it turned into a bright star cruising over the horizon.AWESOME.
4 comments:
Well worth getting up early for. About the closest I got was a nighttime launch of a Delta or Atlas. (Whichever is bigger, I forget.) It's really cool when the night turns to day.
You must be close to my mom and sister's places - Rockledge and Cocoa, respectively. Enjoy the rest of your travels Katie!
Hey, welcome back!
Space shuttle launches are awesome in the true sense of the word. I'm glad you got a chance to see one.
When I was living in Beaufort, SC I discovered about four months before I left that there is a spot on Bay Street overlooking the Beaufort river where I could watch launches. I got a real kick out of waiting about 10 seconds from the moment of launch to see the pillar of flame rising over the water tower on Parris Island a few miles up the river. It was very cool.
I was able to catch the SRB seperation on the first launch because it took place right at dusk and they had the shuttle heading north up the eastern seaboard. I wish I could find a similar location up here in Columbia.
Scot
That is awesome. My dad watched a shuttle launch once on a trip to Florida. I never managed to catch one, which is a little bit of a bummer.
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