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Published: March 17th 2009
Discovery: STS 119
in the air...and we were there!!!(Park of the Palms)
I don’t know how it could have been ten days since I blogged. And, again, I have so much to tell you about, but HIGH on the list is that we watched the liftoff of Discovery Space Shuttle! Five of us drove to Titusville (135 miles), and got a wonderful spot just across the Indian River from the launch site! The whole town had sort of a carnival atmosphere, and the event was made even more magnificent to be viewing it with other people that were so excited~~both people we knew, and people we didn’t!
We got there about an hour and a half before liftoff, which was about what we’d planned. We picked up dinner after we got into Titusville, and just ate there. We were in a small grassy area right along the river; most of the shoreline was overgrown with bushes, etc, but we had quite a large opening to watch through, and were also able to follow it once it was in the air. It was
spectacular!! We saw the steam come out all around it, and then watched it rise in the air, and it went up faster than
You can see the steam at the bottom
of the rocket. My camera wouldn't separate the shuttle from the fireball, but I'll try to get some of Ron's pictures, because he has a better camera. (I'm not complaining, just stating a fact!) I expected…on tv it seems like it begins rather slowly, but it doesn’t! There wasn’t any sound with it, which surprised everyone in the crowd, but then when the shuttle turned a bit we could hear the roar from the engines, which, by then, were pointed in our direction, plus the sound from the liftoff had traveled across the river, so it was loud. It was so bright, and with the sun just setting, the cloud left behind just glowed! We later remembered that there is a pond behind the launch pad that is built so that much of the sound is shot that direction, as well as the energy from the engines. When the shuttle went up, everyone started cheering, and some people started singing “God Bless America”! It almost made me cry. It was just so awesome to watch. We all stood there watching long after the shuttle was just a dot in the sky! I never thought I would get the chance to watch a shuttle launch!
We were standing near a man who is a professional (freelance) photographer~~you’ll see pictures of his cameras. He was extremely interesting to talk to, as he’s been all over
the world taking pictures. He’s seen many launches, and knew quite a bit about the inner workings. He may not have been telling the truth about everything (Bob’s disclaimer: “Just because he tells you that doesn’t mean it’s true”!) He was telling of being in Cambodia taking pictures, and showed where he was shot (arm) and where he was stabbed by them. Anyway, he was nice enough to let all of us look through his 1000x cameras. I don’t remember his last name, and I intended to, because I wanted to watch for his photos. That wasn't a big part of the evening, but just another fun piece of the whole experience!
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Sara!
non-member comment
WOW! How cool!