STS-119
Tonight’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery was beautiful. This is the third launch that I have seen from about 150 miles away. It takes nearly 30 seconds from the time of main engines light to when it comes up over the horizon.
There was a group of about 100 people that watched the launch from atop the St. Petersburg Pier. The view would have been just as good from the water, but it felt better to be up higher.
I’m hopeful to catch one of the launches up close before the Shuttle Program is concluded in 2010 with five (and up to eight)flights remaining. If anyone is interested lets get together for a launch party! There is a sweet spot around May 12-15 of this year with two launch scheduled in that time frame.
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html
Caution some of the photos are quite large. I’ll be reviewing the video to see if it is any good before posting.
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3-31-09 Video is Posted after the photos
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March 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
VERY cool that you watched from the top of The St. Petersburg Pier! Thanks for sharing! We’re here every day and love it!
March 20th, 2009 at 7:08 am
I’ll definitely try and stop past the next time I’m there. Where can you be found?