ULA Atlas 5 Launch 8th August 2019
This summer saw me tick something else off my bucket list. To the best of my knowledge, and for any of you that are worried, I am not ill (I’ll admit I just stopped typing to touch wood), but I still have this mental check list of the stuff I want to do before age and infirmity get the better of me.
Getting the full ‘A’ licence (and a proper bike) was achieved in 2019 and then …
… the reason for this post …
I got to see a rocket launch.
And it was all rather exciting.
Some scene setting - this year’s Baldwin family holiday saw us go to Florida. I hadn’t been to the States since 1995 and had never been to Florida at all. When we were planning the trip, we all voted for the thing that we’d most like to do. My vote was cast for visiting the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
I have written about astronauts and rockets recently, and this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, so going to the temple of space travel was a chance not to be missed.
Better still, our holiday dates happened to coincide with a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 Heavy rocket launch. The payload, a US military satellite.
Having travelled so far and ending up so close, my view was that to not see the launch would have been a source of regret.
If the launch got cancelled for any reason however, the journey would have been wasted and potentially the money too bearing in mind that any subsequent launch could have been put back beyond the term of our holiday.
Risks aside, on the 8th August, I made my way to KSC to take my place/chances at the Banana Creak viewing complex.
The other slight downside was that I had to be at KSC no later than 3am and I was staying in Kissimmee, about an hour’s drive away. Given that I didn’t want to be late, I set off at 1am and that, perhaps unsurprisingly, meant that I went on my own.
The Atlas 5 was to launch from complex 41 and that is more than 5 miles away from Banana Creak. The implication was that the rocket was barely visible at all without magnification. It was literally a speck on the horizon.
From the distance, and in the darkness, my camera was hopeless. Other spectators had lenses about the length of my arm and tripods too, they were going to get some decent pictures … but not me.
The benefit of being on NASA territory for the event was that there was a spokesperson provided that talked us through what was going to happen, and there were big video screens broadcasting live feeds from the ULA launch control centre. Our compere was keen to ensure that we ignored the ULA countdown because it was a little out of sync and that we prioritised watching over recording, so as not to miss the take off.
After a few technical delays that put the launch back by half an hour, the rocket was ready. At circa 6:15am, the launch took place and this fireball shot into the air and rapidly disappeared. The rocket still wasn’t visible at all, just the flames from the engines.
There was a sequence of events, I initially saw the rocket lift off and then a few seconds later heard the launch and then a few seconds after that, felt the shock wave from it. All very cool.
And then a few minutes later it was all over. This photo shows the trail of the Atlas 5 and whilst it looks like it has gone up and come down again, what is actually showing is the rocket following the curvature of the earth.
When you buy a launch ticket, you must buy an entrance ticket to the complex as well. So, the enjoyment didn’t end for me with the launch, because I got to spend the rest of my day at KSC. It’s a cliché I know, but I was as happy as a kid in a toy shop – well maybe a gift shop given the NASA tee shirts, fridge magnets, keyrings and baseball caps purchased.
In fact, KSC was so exciting that I went again a week later. On that occasion with my son (and not so early in the morning).
After the launch, I visited YouTube and found a link to the official launch video. Here it is for your enjoyment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSr1x4uQYXo
Obviously, it’s better for the detail, but not as much fun as actually being there. And besides, I could hardly claim a bucket-list-success by watching a video.
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Getting the full ‘A’ licence (and a proper bike) was achieved in 2019 and then …
… the reason for this post …
I got to see a rocket launch.
And it was all rather exciting.
Some scene setting - this year’s Baldwin family holiday saw us go to Florida. I hadn’t been to the States since 1995 and had never been to Florida at all. When we were planning the trip, we all voted for the thing that we’d most like to do. My vote was cast for visiting the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
I have written about astronauts and rockets recently, and this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, so going to the temple of space travel was a chance not to be missed.
Better still, our holiday dates happened to coincide with a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 Heavy rocket launch. The payload, a US military satellite.
Having travelled so far and ending up so close, my view was that to not see the launch would have been a source of regret.
If the launch got cancelled for any reason however, the journey would have been wasted and potentially the money too bearing in mind that any subsequent launch could have been put back beyond the term of our holiday.
Risks aside, on the 8th August, I made my way to KSC to take my place/chances at the Banana Creak viewing complex.
The other slight downside was that I had to be at KSC no later than 3am and I was staying in Kissimmee, about an hour’s drive away. Given that I didn’t want to be late, I set off at 1am and that, perhaps unsurprisingly, meant that I went on my own.
The Atlas 5 was to launch from complex 41 and that is more than 5 miles away from Banana Creak. The implication was that the rocket was barely visible at all without magnification. It was literally a speck on the horizon.
From the distance, and in the darkness, my camera was hopeless. Other spectators had lenses about the length of my arm and tripods too, they were going to get some decent pictures … but not me.
The benefit of being on NASA territory for the event was that there was a spokesperson provided that talked us through what was going to happen, and there were big video screens broadcasting live feeds from the ULA launch control centre. Our compere was keen to ensure that we ignored the ULA countdown because it was a little out of sync and that we prioritised watching over recording, so as not to miss the take off.
After a few technical delays that put the launch back by half an hour, the rocket was ready. At circa 6:15am, the launch took place and this fireball shot into the air and rapidly disappeared. The rocket still wasn’t visible at all, just the flames from the engines.
There was a sequence of events, I initially saw the rocket lift off and then a few seconds later heard the launch and then a few seconds after that, felt the shock wave from it. All very cool.
And then a few minutes later it was all over. This photo shows the trail of the Atlas 5 and whilst it looks like it has gone up and come down again, what is actually showing is the rocket following the curvature of the earth.
When you buy a launch ticket, you must buy an entrance ticket to the complex as well. So, the enjoyment didn’t end for me with the launch, because I got to spend the rest of my day at KSC. It’s a cliché I know, but I was as happy as a kid in a toy shop – well maybe a gift shop given the NASA tee shirts, fridge magnets, keyrings and baseball caps purchased.
In fact, KSC was so exciting that I went again a week later. On that occasion with my son (and not so early in the morning).
After the launch, I visited YouTube and found a link to the official launch video. Here it is for your enjoyment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSr1x4uQYXo
Obviously, it’s better for the detail, but not as much fun as actually being there. And besides, I could hardly claim a bucket-list-success by watching a video.
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