Pic from Night Launch of Shuttle

The Green Guy · 03-12-2008, 05:00 PM

A friend of mine took this cool pic of the shuttles night launch yesterday morning ... 2:28am

TreeTopFlyer · 03-13-2008, 01:04 AM

That's from Nasa Causeway or Titusville? Looks almost as close as me!

Photofinishron · 03-13-2008, 03:15 AM

Pretty cool! Must be a thrill in real life to be there!

Ron

TreeTopFlyer · 03-13-2008, 05:17 AM

Not really a thrill anymore. I was born here. The home I grew up in is about 13 miles from the actual launch pad the shuttle launches from. (I measured it on Google earth). I currently live about 18 miles from the pad. The very closest homes on Merritt Island are 9.9 miles from the launch pad. Kennedy Space Center is a huge parcel of land. It's about 18 miles by 15 miles wide (measuring on Google earth again). I think the thrill is for the people who have not ever seen a launch and the kids. I have many many fond memories of launches of the old Saturn missiles with the Apollo spacecraft aboard. The sheer size difference says allot. The Saturn V used to really rattle some windows. Those were real rockets. Here's a comparison chart to illustrate the size difference between the Saturn 5, Space Shuttle and the 3 proposed replacement launch vehicles for the current Space Shuttle.

Wobbly Goblin · 03-13-2008, 07:59 AM

The Saturn V launches must have been awesome around your place. I can remember spending the whole day in class watching the moon walks. Everything took a back seat to that stuff in those days...it was amazing! These days it's not nearly as big a deal.

I was working on a transmission tower in 1986 when the Challenger exploded. My foreman heard the news on the radio and called us all down to tell us about it. Everyone there nearly burst into tears. Of course we were all children of the 50's & 60's, so that's all we talked about in the days/weeks that followed.

The crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-51-L pose for their official portrait on November 15, 1985.
In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair.