What an incredible night for a perfect launch. The sky was so clear we could watch the shuttle all the way to Main Engine Cut Off just above the horizon 700 miles away.
We had our big island boat parade tonight so all the neighbors got together to watch the decorated boats cruise down the canal, and then we moved the party to the front yard to watch the launch. At initial ignition it looked like the sun was rapidly coming up in the north sky for about 10 seconds before the rocket actually came into view, and 30 seconds later we heard the rumble and roar (though not as loud as when we have easterly launches).
The best part of the evening is that there are no reports of any large foam separations from the external tank and all the cameras worked flawlessly to monitor the first night launch in 4 years.
We had our big island boat parade tonight so all the neighbors got together to watch the decorated boats cruise down the canal, and then we moved the party to the front yard to watch the launch. At initial ignition it looked like the sun was rapidly coming up in the north sky for about 10 seconds before the rocket actually came into view, and 30 seconds later we heard the rumble and roar (though not as loud as when we have easterly launches).
The best part of the evening is that there are no reports of any large foam separations from the external tank and all the cameras worked flawlessly to monitor the first night launch in 4 years.
