I heard the Shuttle this morning! And saw it too.

[delta_charlie]

Hi all, what a great morning for a shuttle launch! Clear as a bell and very quite. About 6:10 AM I had HQ5 (NASA HD) on the BUD and the announcer said you could see the space station flying over and sure enough I ran out side and could see it ripping across the sky to the N.E from near Orlando. Then the launch - saw it first on NASA then ran outside and watched it go up. Managed to snap a few pictures using only a 55 mm zoom on my Pentax digital camera from the back yard. If you look close in one of the pictures you can see the BUD that had NASA on it. About a minute after the launch I could clearly hear it. What a morning!

PS - the two pictures of the contrails were taken about 20 min. after the launch.

Got to start getting ready for work, DC

 

[dfergie]

Thats Cool!

 

[iafirebuff]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing the pics

 

[skysurfer]

you're lucky you live where you get to see launches on a frequent basis.

thanks for the pics.

 

[Tron]

I'm hoping to plan a trip to the Space Coast to watch one of the remaining launches in person. The last launch I saw in person was way back in 1985... It was a night launch.

 

[gordonkearse]

We all take way too much for granted. Our lives here in America parallel a Jules Verne tale.
"Our" shuttle is making regular space flights much like airliners fly every day.

Just think about how much we have to be thankful for! I read on yahoo where almost 50 percent of America pay no taxes to the IRS a couple of days ago. Funny twist, isn't it?

 

[N4ST]

I've always regretted not making it to a Saturn V launch. I've seen two shuttle launches and hope to make it back down for one of the remaining 3.

 

[plumberguy]

It woke me up

 

[Mr Tony]

very cool

 

[swampman]

Awesome pics Charlie! Took the family to watch a launch back in '98. It was an early morning launch...just before daylight. We stayed in Cocoa FL. Had to wake the kids up at about 4 AM to get to a designated observation site. Someone had a small portable TV next to us watching the countdown. At liftoff, the early morning skies turned a beautiful orange glow over the small lakes on the horizon. Beautiful! I too want to go back this year, before project Space Shuttle ends.

 

[Tron]

Yep, Cocoa Beach is where we stayed as well. A relative got us a pass to view the launch from Cape Canaveral AFS, as close as people were allowed to be. I still have the pass, it is for mission 61-B and has a warning on the back about what to do if the cloud from the launch moves in your direction ...

 

[swampman]

Yep, Cocoa Beach is where we stayed as well.

Well actually we had to stay in the town of Cocoa(just a few miles from Cocoa Beach), CB was booked up.

A relative got us a pass to view the launch from Cape Canaveral AFS, as close as people were allowed to be. I still have the pass, it is for mission 61-B and has a warning on the back about what to do if the cloud from the launch moves in your direction

Wow! Nice. I have no relatives with connections to anything. But I have what they called a "car pass" back then(STS-88 launch) that I sent off for...but we never made that trip so I just kept it.

 

[kspilot]

When the Shuttle came over Wichita,Kansas it produced a sonic boom..that shook my windows..lol.