The Launch Itself

Here is the second of two posts, this one of the launch itself.

After waiting for a couple of hours, we began to see activity over the launch site.  Helicopters hovered, and at one point a large jet accompanied by two helicopters flew over:

I was following a chat regarding the launch on my iPhone, and Lee was following a Twitter Twit thingy on his iPhone, so we knew the launch was actually going to happen.  (Isn't the Internet amazing?)  It was a bit uncertain because of the clouds overhead.

Since we did not record a video, I am going to show a series of photos taken in rapid succession of the launch, all taken by Lee.  Once the launch started it went very, very quickly. The shuttle reached the cloud cover in less than a minute, after which point we could no longer see it.  In this first photo, you see the cloud of exhaust on the right.  The shuttle has not yet lifted off, but the process has begun.  In the foreground is the water of the Indian River:

Here, you can see ignition!!

Lift off!!  What a thrilling moment!

The photo below is a close crop of the photo above:

 

I love the photo above!

For awhile, we watched the smoke dissipate:

Amazingly, the sound took a long time to reach us.  It was silent until long after the shuttle disappeared into and above the clouds. Finally the sound arrived, including several loud "pops".  The wind was blowing from west to east, and we were told this would soften the sound quite a bit.  I didn't even have to cover my ears.  Apparently, when the wind blows in the opposite direction, the sound can be deafening and can be heard from miles away.  I am also told the shuttle launch makes buildings shake and windows rattle.  It can be quite impressive.

There remains one last shuttle launch, of the shuttle Atlantis, scheduled for June 28.  The Endeavour will be retired when it returns from its current mission.   I witnessed history!  

It was more difficult to leave Titusville than to get in.  Here is the traffic after the launch:

Lee and I wandered around the Sears mall for a couple of hours until the traffic cleared, and had no problems returning to the RV park.

Tomorrow, we had north for certain.  Mission accomplished!  No more turning back now!