Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 3:40am
A few weeks ago I went to Florida for spring break. It was a great trip that Charlie and I took with our two good friends Mark and Jeff. One of the activities that we did while in Florida was check out the Space Shuttle launch. We were pretty lucky because the Space Shuttle was supposed to launch the Wednesday before we arrived but ended up being delayed until that Sunday when we would be in town. The Kennedy Space Center was fascinating with many exhibits, presentations and tours of our space program.
My whole life I have been fascinated with outer space and the equipment and technology that we use to explore the cosmos. Watching the Space Shuttle launch was definitely one of the life events that I think people should witness in person. Thinking about the years of science and development that it has taken to develop of the the most advanced machines on the planet that is capable of tens of thousands of miles per hour to reach outer-space is just mind blowing.
I wasn’t able to take the best photographs of the shuttle launch, I did manage to take a few that I thought that you might enjoy.
The launch was really exciting. We all counted down and then when the boosters fired the whole sky became very bright and then we waited for the shuttle to rise above the building that was blocking my view. It was literally a fireball raising into the sky!
This is Jeff (left) and Mark (right). Very fun guys to go on vacation with…
The sun was already setting and we were in the shadow of the earth, but the shuttle went high enough to get back into the sunlight and even cause a really cool shadow. This picture is really cool because you can see where the two boosters have already separated and are falling back to the earth.
Just a cool shot of the sunlight hitting the smoke trail that the shuttle left behind for us to enjoy.
Farook Khan