When we got up this morning, the weather conditions, technical conditions at the Cape and my work conditions all looked favorable, so we set off on a road trip up the Space Coast to Port Canaveral to watch the STS 114 launch from the beach near Jetty Point. This put us about 6 miles from the pad at the time of the launch. We had staked out this spot 2 weeks ago when the fuel sensor caused NASA to abort the launch. We thought it would be a pretty good spot to watch the launch from.and we were right.
We got to the beach around 9:00 am and waited patiently over the next hour and 39 minutes while the beach filled up around us. By 10:30 AM EST, the place was getting to be a little crowded.
At 10:39, we began to hear a low roar in the distance. It sounded a little like a 747 on take off.but it was deeper and kept getting louder. Suddenly the beach began to erupt in cheers and applause as the shuttle became visible to our Northeast above the condos.
It was incredible and something that will stay with me for a lifetime. I now understand the term "rising on a pillar of fire" as Discovery, the central fuel tank and the SRBs were all but invisible. Whether it was the brightness of the flame or whether the amazingly long flame just drew your eye away from the vehicle, I cannot say. The flame itself had much more of an orange hue than I expected. It looked very similar to Aerotech White Lightening propellant.and orange yellow flame and a thick plume of dense grey/white smoke.
At first the progress appeared to be slow .. Almost like the shuttle was clawing its way into the sky, but in no time, it became apparent just how fast it was accelerating, especially as the shuttle rotated and began to head down range.
The most amazing thing for me was the fact that the sound of the engines could be heard long after the shuttle was no longer able to be tracked by the naked eye. It's low bass frequency rumble thundered on for at least 7 minutes after I lost sight of Discovery.
I am sure I will remember this launch for a long, long time. It was my first. Next time I want to be close enough to feel the thunder in my chest!
Mark A Palmer