Titusville - Space X Launch of astronauts at night

 

The rocket is just now rising, lighting up the clouds

At 9:00 pm yesterday we went outside to see the launch, at the end of our dock. We have a good view of the sky towards the Kennedy Space Center. The launch was right on time and the first thing we saw was the sky light up. The rocket was still below where we could see but the entire sky glowed. 

Now the rocket itself comes into view

Then we saw the rocket rise up enough for us to see the exhaust flames. It was so bright that it only appeared as a round ball of light but it gradually moved upward. Then the roar of the engines reached us since the sound had to travel far from the launch pad. 

Into the clouds!

As the rocket rose higher, it disappeared into the clouds but then the clouds lit up too, very beautiful. We continued watching and finally, we saw the rocket through an opening in the clouds briefly as it rose up and away. 

One last peek in a hole in the cloud cover

I'm always mesmerized by a rocket launch, such controlled power, and nighttime launches really show off the beauty of the flights. There are so many things that can go wrong but Space X seems to have it all under control.

We did a lot more today since we had a car but those adventures are for another blog.