I don't even know where to start? Right now it is the morning after and my mind is still buzzing with awe and excitement after seeing one of the coolest man-made phenomena period. I think its worth waxing on for a little bit to share the whole story. It started way back in March when Brandon, Stephen and myself all got up before the crack of dawn to go and see Atlantis launch. Half way there, the launch was scrubbed and we turned around and at least I went back to a sleep in with my wife.
Last Friday, Brandon and I decided that the two of us would try our luck again and make our way down to the Cape. By the following Friday afternoon, our two man count had grown to 10, consisting of, Brandon and Krista, Stephen and Anna, Nathan, Sarah and Nathan's Parents and of course Jenee and myself. We set out a little later than we had wanted but pretty much had smooth sailing until we reached the Orlando International Airport and the tollbooth-a-mile stretch that follows. There were thousands upon thousands of cars all heading for the same place we were: Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Stephen ' The Middleman' and Anna actually arrived an hour before us and found a fantastic spot along the shore line. Stephen even managed to convince the lady who was renting the car parks to hold them for over 30 minutes until the rest of the party arrived (Stevens', Wilson's and Ott's). I don't know how he did it, but he did and thats all that matters. Thanks to Mr Ott and his GPS we discovered that we had a direct line of sight of the two launch pads, 11.8 mi / 18.9 km away. Now you might think that is pretty far away, but remember, the structures and Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) are monstrous and were easily visible.
We played around for an hour or so waiting for the all clear, talking amongst ourselves and some of the other people near us. Stephen once again came through, making friends with a gentleman who works for United Space Alliance (USA) who kindly updated us about the launch status and other tidbits of trivial as we waited for the time to come.
The first indication that something was about to happed was that several people got out of their cars and started looking through binoculars. That was my cue. Checking the camera settings one more time I waited, poised on the shutter release button... all of a sudden a hugh plume was visible on the south side of the launch tower, then the north, then the bottom of the tower glowed bright orange and with in a few seconds the shuttle had lifted off and cleared the tower. A few seconds later the shuttle was rapidly accelerating and made its pitch change for the north, shuttle rotating to be underneath the boosters and fuel cell. Then about a minute later we could just see the boosters fall off and the shuttle continue on as nothing more that a bright star, and then it came...
Now, as a scientist, I had been curious as whether we would hear any noise from the launch, being so far. I thought about it, realising that the line of sight was clear, so I decided that it was likely, which made me wonder, "well then, how loud would it be?" Precisely 55.24 seconds after lift off, my question was answered.
It started off as a low rumble that my senses could tell was rapidly approaching over the water. It quickly built up to a loud thundering rumble that was so strong and low in frequency it was shaking our bodies and drowned out the whole crowds cheers. It was just amazing. I guess thats what happens when a combined 11,700,000 kW or 11.7 Giga Watts of power is unleashed.
It's amazing that after more than 117 shuttle launches, almost a half a million people came so see the spectical of a lifetime. We were all so excited, and I think a few of us are still buzzing about it a day after the event. STS-118 Endeavor is scheduled to launch on August 9, 2007 and we are already planning on being there.
To finish off this post I have some interesting trivial to share with you. Did you know that a few years ago, NASA launched a rocket with a multi-billion dollar satellite that they terminated only a few moments after launch? Well, apparently if the space shuttle veered of course by only a few degrees such that it would endanger the viewing crowds they would destroy the shuttle in a heartbeat... wow.
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