Night Shuttle Launch

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jeff

jeff

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Any Space Shuttle fans out there? There have only been a couple dozen night launches, and another is occurring tonight at 7:55pm US Eastern Time.

6.5 million pounds of thrust is pretty impressive at night.

This is STS-126 flown by Endeavour.

Weather was iffy, but is go for launch now.

You can watch NASA TV:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
 
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Thanks for the link Jeff.

It was really cool to hear things being explained as it was happening. I'll bet that the employee channel was even better.
 
i'm one of the lucky ones. when i was stationed in southeast Georgia, i took my young daughter down to catch a night lauch.....GAWD WAS IT A SITE!!!! it goes beyond description.
i'm glad the two of us took that 3 hour drive down there and back!
 
I used to work at a drop zone in Sebastian, FL. It is an hour or so south of Cape Canaveral. We used to plan skydives around the shuttle launches. We would time it so that we would exit the plan as the shuttle was lifting off. It was awesome to be in free fall and then under canopy watching the shuttle disappearing into space.

I took the image below at a night launch I went to. We were on the causeway. It is an amazing sight and sensation to see a launch, particularly at night!

The funny thing was, we waited hours for the launch and then the shuttle had not even got out of sight and already you could hear people start their cars and start heading for the exit. So much for sitting back and contemplating the incredible event they had just witnessed :eek:

IMG0038.jpg
 
I lived in Melbourne, FL for 15 years (83-98) and had the pleasure of watching many shuttle launches (day and night). I also got to watch two from Kennedy Space Center due to the generosity of an extended family member who worked there.

They are awesome events and well worth the trouble to see in person.

Sorry for the gloating, I couldn't help it. If I can get this to work, here is a close up photo of the underside of the orbiter in the OPF facility:



John
 

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One thought I have had every time I see a Launch (photo of one anyway) is just how far away can you "feel" the heat of it and better yet how far do you "Feel" it at all. it's got to shake a few tea sets.
 
Always a winner... Sometimes I'll take a gambling ship out of Port Canaveral and watch from a few miles offshore (in whichever area the CG hasn't restricted). Have also been on final approach to Space Center Exec in a Cessna 182, and watched one go up right in front of me. Very cool. Even when I'm home in Orlando, you can usually feel (and sometimes hear) the thing go up, and we're 50 miles away (takes about 5 minutes for the sound and vibes to reach us).
 
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