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After a little rest under my belt and eyelids from the trip, the day of the shuttle launch came -- well, the night, really. This shuttle mission requires a liftoff around midnight. Unlike my first trip here in May, I was unable to get an official launch ticket, so I staked out what I thought would be a good place to watch. Titusville is the city west of the shuttle launch pads and the Vehicle Assembly Building across the Indian River, which are shown below looking (oddly enough) east early in the afternoon. This is the area where I stayed on my first trip here.
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A couple of things made the interest in this launch higher. First, this is the first shuttle mission flown by a woman commander, Eileen Collins. Second, the launch was scheduled to take place on the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing. Traffic was pretty ugly, so after measuring off the walk to the place I wanted to be, I decided to walk there. It only turned out to be 3.3 miles and the sauna-like weather here is at its most temperate at night. I got to the viewing area, right along U.S. 1, at around 10:45 pm for a 12:36 am liftoff. Here are a few poor pictures of what I saw -- having forgot to read up on how to take low-light pictures...
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The crowd was pretty impressive and I'm sure the launch would have been, too...except bad data caused the count to be stopped 7 seconds before liftoff. I made it back to my hotel before most of the traffic out of the area...of course, I also probably had bigger blisters than any else, too.
Last Revised: 22 July 1999
Complaints: blupwa@lupwa.org