One of the perks of living at Vandenberg Air Force base, is that they shoot things into space. This Tuesday, we got the chance to watch a Delta 2 rocket push the latest global imaging satellite into orbit. So, the next time that you fire up Google Earth, you will be looking through the eyes of World View Satellite-1. I was roughly 2-3 miles away from the launch pad, and the morning was extremely overcast, so I wasn't able to get as good of a view of the launch as I had liked. Even from that distance, though, it certainly was LOUD. About 6 seconds after lift-off the rocket disappeared into the clouds, and about 30 seconds later I got a good enough view through a break in the clouds to snap a few pictures of the first stage burning and the vapor trail.
Jessie was a few miles away at work, but was able to get outside during the launch. From her vantage point there were far less clouds, and once the rocket popped through the ceiling she was able to watch it burn all the way through the first and second stages, and disappear off into space. All in all, it was a pretty neat experience, and hopefully (weather permitting) I can get some better pictures of the next launch. You can check out some professional images on Vandenberg's homepage here, and watch a streaming video of the launch here (sorry dial-up people). The video is rather lengthy, and the actual launch doesn't occur until 20 minutes into it...so you may want to fast forward it a bit.
1 comment:
That is really Sweet!, I am jelous.
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