Space Shuttle Launch!

On Monday morning, at 1:30 am, we again met up in the lobby and got on the bus to head to Banana Creek. The shuttle was scheduled to launch at 4:14am.

Again, we visited the Saturn V visitors center, and about 40 minutes before the flight, we headed to the bleachers. It was less crowded this time since so many people had left town on Sunday.

You could see the shuttle all lit up.

There was still some concern about weather, but lucky for us, the clouds cleared in time, so it was a 'go' for launch! They sang the national anthem with about 3 minutes to go, and then everyone shouted the count-down from 10 seconds. The launch was incredibly bright - It looks like daylight when it first leaves the pad. A few seconds after you see it lift off, you can hear a loud roar and feel the shaking from the sound waves. And then the shuttle gets farther and farther away until it basically just looks like a point of light. And then there are people in space. It's pretty amazing to see.

The clock keeps ticking after launch - you can continue to see the shuttle in the sky for quite a while, so we didn't leave until almost 10 minutes after launch.