There She Goes!

One of the bonuses of living in central Florida is our proximity to Kennedy Space Center, and the ability to watch the Space Shuttles launch from our front yard. We usually watch the countdown and launch on TV, and then about 20 seconds after launch, run out and look east to see the glow come up into our view on the horizon. When we lived in the Orlando area, we could hear the rumble on a humid day if the wind was right. The rumble reached us well after the shuttle was out of sight (speed of sound vs. speed of light).

Today's Discovery launch was a late afternoon twilight launch; one of the prettiest I have seen in my 18 (!) years as a Central Floridian. From here I could clearly see the stages dropping off and continuing to glow, and could see the shuttle's taillight glowing, a pinprick in the eastern sky, 9 minutes after launch.

I did not take my camera, but wanted to include a bit of shuttle experience. These pics are from a fish camp on the Intercoastal waterway, north of the Space Center. This was April 2001, Earthgirl's first shuttle launch.

See the little shot of light straight over us?

And here is baby Earthgirl.