We were up at 5am and walked about 1 1/2 miles to the Banana River Bridge to see the shuttle launch. We anticipated that we would be the only people crazy enough to get up early to watch the launch. We thought wrong as there were already 30-40 people standing at the base of the Banana River Bridge in anticipation of the launch when we arrived.
A fellow shuttle watcher let us view the shuttle through his binoculars. We were 10-12 miles away from the pad but through the lenses could see the shuttle standing at its launch ramp clear as day. While we were waiting for the launch we saw the International Space Station going past overhead - pretty cool.
Someone had a radio on nearby with shuttle commentary. The spokeperson said countown 2 minutes and 39 seconds to launch and then the shuttle blasted off.....I didn't even have the camera ready. I guess the commentary was slightly delayed!!
Nonetheless, at 6:21am the launch pad lit up and the shuttle took off. We watched for many minutes as its glow climbed into the sky. Despite the darkness, you could see the smoke trails behind it clearly. When the visual spectacle was almost over, the sound of the launch finally reached us. It was a huge rumble, like a thunderstorm.
All in all, really impressive!! We walked back to the boat and when the sun did come up we were able to get a photo of the residual smoke trails lighting up the sky. What a great start to the day!
The Admiral
4/5/2010
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