Anyone seen a Shuttle launch?

[Schumi]

I've never seen one. With the end of the STS programme coming next year possibly.. I'm thinking of taking a special trip next year to see one. I met someone once who said seeing it was one of the most ridiculously cool things they've ever witnessed.


Thoughts?

[rouxroux]

Way cool but pales in comparison to the old Saturn V

[rattlsnak]

it was by far the coolest thing i have seen. ive seen it three times now and the closest was about 15 miles from the pad, and came up over our heads. (cocoa beach) Hard to explain, but the shuttle looked like it was about 1"tall and the flame out the bottom was about 6" long. after everybody clapped and cheered and headed back to our cars the ground started rumbling. it rumbled for a good 2 minutes setting off car alarms etc. CRAZY kind of power...

[JonT]

I'm interested in doing this as well--what is the best way of going about it to get the best view?

[fingpilot]

I watched it at 45,000 feet holding at Melbourne VOR once. From the time it left the pad until thru my altitude was seconds. It had taken me 22 minutes to climb that high. I have a pic. Didn't look as impressive in the pic. Turned out to sea at about my altitude, and disappeared over the horizon in a minute and a half.

[Racerbvd]

Worth the trip..... DO IT!!!!

[john70t]

A decade back, stood on a Sarasota beach and watched a vertical plume of smoke rise.(that doesn't count)

[mikester]

When I was a kid I watched it return on top of from Edwards via a 747. Even that is amazing.

I've seen a few launches and am also planning a trip for next year to take the family to see a launch. My wife hasn't seen one and neither has my 5 year old (or the 1 1/2 year old but I don't imagine it'll make a lasting impression on him yet).

[Heel n Toe]

Schumi, block out a decent-sized span of time in case the launch gets scrubbed a few times b/c of hardware, software, or weather. Maybe you could check and pick a mission that has several launch windows within a week.

There was a launch the same day we left to come home from Didney Wurl in the summer of '89. I talked with a guy in a Minimart in Kissimmee about it when I was filling up the car the night before. He said we should get up early and head up there, but that we'd never be able to get very close because on both sides of whatever road that runs East toward the center, there would be tons of motorhomes that had already been there for 3-4 days.

Neither my wife nor I wanted to get up early and buzz up there and not have a great view... or have it scrubbed after making the effort, so we just left around checkout time.

We turned on the radio, and the original launch time had been scrubbed, but they were gonna try again about the time we would be passing by the Flagler Beach exit on I-95, so we got off and headed over to the coast. They scrubbed it again.

A few years later, we went to the OmniMax theatre at Discovery Place in Charlotte and saw Blue Planet, which included a shuttle launch on that huge screen with those amazing speakers solidly thumping our chest cavities as if we were about 1/4 to 1/2 mile away.... WAY closer than we would've ever gotten at the Cape. We truly felt like we had seen and felt the power of that launch... it was amazing.

So, if you can't make it for a real launch, check the closest IMAX or OMNIMAX theatre to see if they ever plan on showing it again. I would guess that watching it on that screen is at least 7/10ths the intensity of the real experience.

The film also included a lot of footage of the earth shot from the shuttle... which was equally breathtaking.

Hmmm... it's available on DVD... how good is the sound on your home system?
IMAX: Blue Planet / The Dream Is Alive

[1990C4S]

I saw it once. From the gulf side of Florida. Still impressive. I would do it.

[Super_Dave_D]

Words cant describe it!! Go! Its the best 30 seconds you will ever have! I usually go to some small park in Titusville. Its not the closest but pretty good.

A quick Google search well help you a lot!

Here is teh view from Titusville.

[Joeaksa]

Never have but would love to before the stupidly stop the program.

[desertt5]

Originally Posted by Super_Dave_D

Words cant describe it!! Go! Its the best 30 seconds you will ever have! I usually go to some small park in Titusville. Its not the closest but pretty good.

A quick Google search well help you a lot!

Here is teh view from Titusville.

This is the view I saw many times growing up in Titusville. There are many places along US 1 that border the river seen in the pic to watch from. Titusville used to be a parking lot on US 1 during launch time. Not near as crowded now days.

It does tend to get delayed/ scrubbed quite often. Not easy to plan quick trip for, but a couple days you will have a decent chance of seeing it. The night launches are amazing !!

[Tim Walsh]

Originally Posted by desertt5

This is the view I saw many times growing up in Titusville. There are many places along US 1 that border the river seen in the pic to watch from. Titusville used to be a parking lot on US 1 during launch time. Not near as crowded now days.

It does tend to get delayed/ scrubbed quite often. Not easy to plan quick trip for, but a couple days you will have a decent chance of seeing it. The night launches are amazing !!

My wife and I made a bonzai trip down to see one earlier this year. In hindsight we got REALLY lucky. Left Winston about 6am, showed up in titusville about an hour before launch, grabbed a spot at the local park(spacewalk? spaceview??), had the launch go off without a hitch, and drove back(getting home at 5am) Definitely worth a trip.
Here's a pic from the launch I saw. To put this in perspective this was taken with a D40 @200mm.


Pictures of the PACKED park, but they had the shuttle/control room com channel broadcast on the speakers in the park which helped a ton.

[legion]

I have (had) family in Melbourne and Merritt Island.

Launches have been scheduled 5 times when I have been down there, but 0 have happened.

Now my mom has moved to Atlanta and my grandparents have both passed. It's only my aunt left in Melbourne, and we're not particularly close, so I doubt I'll have the opportunity again.

[cwiert]

I saw it for the first time last spring. It was pretty amazing. Made me feel very small. I thought it was cool how after a few minutes passed, then we heard this loud rumble.
I have 2 young kids, so we went to Cocca beach, which is a little bit south of the Cape. We got there early so the kids could play in the sand and not be bored waiting for the launch. This pic doesn't do it justice, but it's all i have.

[carreradpt]

We had flown a mission into the Cape Canaveral Skid Strip the night before a 9 am launch. The next morning most of the crew went with the skid guys to a bridge nearby to watch the launch. I climbed up the tail tunnel and watched from the top of the t-tail of the C-17. I had one leg in the tail and the other on the wing about 60 feet up. It was very quiet, the AC power was off, and then I see the shuttle fire up, lots of smoke. Still quiet. Lots of flame, it starts climbing. Still quiet. Then all of a sudden the sound hits me and the tail starts rocking. Hoy crap. Thought I was going to get rocked off the tail. Screamed like a little girl.

[Deschodt]

I'd like to as well as I am not that far, but the last few launches I've paid attention to have all been postponed multiple times... It's kinda hard to plan for that...

The space center has a decent Imax film of a take off that will give you a good idea...

[Hugh R]

Very cool to see. About 25 years ago, I got involved in an atmospheric chemistry problem with the shuttle. They flood the concrete below the rocket exhaust with water before liftoff so the reflected heat doesn't melt the shuttle. The water vapor that you see is part exhaust, and part steam from the flooded concrete. The pH of the water vapor is about that of battery acid (1). We put out polished copper plates in a series of circles up to 1/4 mile away from the launch pad to evaluate the staining and pH from the hydrochloric acid in the water vapor.

[carr914]

I've seen a bunch of them from up & down the coast. Saw Challenger explode