If you have never seen a night launch, they are spectacular. This is the view from my house. We are about 40 minutes from Canaveral. So our view is quite beautiful once the shuttle is over our trees. Last night launch there was a full moon. Before the shuttle was over the trees, you couldn’t tell the moon halo from the shuttle’s halo. It was too cool. No doubt any night launch is cool!
In the 2nd photo, the two lights together are the booster rockets that deploy right before the shuttle gets out of the atmosphere. The light by itself is the shuttle. It’s even better in person. You can watch the shuttle for a while before it completely disappears.
If you don’t know, The government is putting a halt to the Shuttle program. What I understand is they want to upgrade the shuttles, which they have been talking about for a while. It’s just sad to see them go away even though they do need to, they are old and worn out. I grew up with them, I grew up with the space program in Alabama. I even went to two schools named after astronauts (Roger Chaffee and Virgil Grissom). Like I said it’s a sad day to see them go. I’m sure the next generation will be even better but until then I look at what the space program has done and what I have seen. It is truly amazing.
Later
