Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Discovery...

They left right on time, 7:43 PM ... this is from our beach which is 60 miles south of the launch sites on Cape Canaveral. It took 5 minutes for the sound to reach us. The pictures are not doing the actual view any justice whatsoever, the booster separation was visible from the time of separation until they were almost on the horizon.





I believe I need a new camera.

Man, that has to be a cool thing to witness, even at that distance.

Wow!

It certainly has to be witnessed in person to appreciate the view, especially these late evening and night launches. Whenever the old Atlas rockets would launch the fire looked many times larger than the shuttle's, the Atlas rockets were incredibly huge ... made it look like the entire sky was lit up.

Oh wow. You are so lucky.

We were in Orlando, I'm told about 30 miles I away, and it was quite an event for me, something about seeing a phenomenon of human ingenuity like that with your own eyes that really brings the reality home. Should have brought the camera, my wife got a pretty cool pic on her cellphone, they say it's like a "shooting star in reverse" and from this distance that's exactly what it looked like.

Nice way to kick off a vacation and help me tune into the magic of life and begin to forget about the rigmarole.

Cool, Rick. I remember years ago when they piggybacked the spaceshuttle on a Jumbo Jet over southern Ontario, something I'll never forget(early/mid 80s).

Ah the beach, now that is our next project, oh wait you live on the beach, now I'm jealous.

Nice pics Rick, wish I was there.

Thanks for the pics.

Awesome shots, Rick! Thanks for sharing.

I wonder if Marvin has been monitoring this launch?

Rick:
Thanks for the photos! Joyce in particular has always wanted to see a shuttle launch. Actually, this whole area has a ver high interest in the shuttle as it's Christa McAuliff's hometown.

I just keep finding reason after reason to visit you, Rick!

I think I can almost make out Wheelz holding on to the reins. When the sound finally did reach you, could you make out his "YeeeeeHaaaaa!!"?

P.S. I need to cue up Rush's "Countdown", from Signals. "Young and Crippen really moving out now..."

And I'm sure a lot of Rush-heads here know that "Red Sector A" was the audience area that Rush got to see a launch from.

Very cool!

I was in Orlando a couple of years ago when they were going to do a launch on a Sunday afternoon. We drove over to Coaco Beach but the launch got scrubbed. The traffic leaving was incredible. It took 4 hours to get back to Orlando. I would say that watching from a distance is not a bad way to do it....

I once heard from my hotel room in Orlando the spaceShuttle sonic boom during a landing in Florida ... I thought it was pretty cool.

An interesting factoid about the Space Shuttle...the stream of water, seen coming down the sides of the main engines when it launches, are not there to cool the engines as most people believe. They are there to break up acoustic waves so they don't damage the craft(150+ Db).

Interesting Adrian! I took a video of the launch, but I'm alot further south than RickF (about 350 miles from the launch). It still looked impressive though, since the skies were clear. Heard no sound, however.

Cool Pics.
The only reason I ever wish I was a lot younger is because we are getting closer to the day a common civilian can go up into space. It's actually better that I don't win the lottery because I would spend the whole thing for a chance to experience it.